Introduction

A palindrome is a string that reads the same backward as forward. For example, “radar” and “level” are palindromes. Palindrome checking is a common problem in programming that helps in understanding string manipulation and control flow in code.

Objective

The objective of this program is to determine whether a given string is a palindrome. This will be achieved by comparing characters from the start and end of the string, moving towards the center.

Java Code

public class PalindromeChecker {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String input = "radar"; // Change this input to test with different strings
        boolean isPalindrome = checkPalindrome(input);
        
        if (isPalindrome) {
            System.out.println(input + " is a palindrome.");
        } else {
            System.out.println(input + " is not a palindrome.");
        }
    }
    
    public static boolean checkPalindrome(String str) {
        int left = 0;
        int right = str.length() - 1;
        
        while (left < right) {
            if (str.charAt(left) != str.charAt(right)) {
                return false;
            }
            left++;
            right--;
        }
        return true;
    }
}

Program Structure

The program consists of a main class called PalindromeChecker with the following components:

• main method: This is the entry point of the program where we define the input string and call the checkPalindrome method.
• checkPalindrome method: This method takes a string as input and checks if it is a palindrome by using a two-pointer approach.

How to Run the Program

1. Ensure you have Java Development Kit (JDK) installed on your machine.
2. Create a new Java file named PalindromeChecker.java and copy the provided code into the file.
3. Open a terminal or command prompt.
4. Navigate to the directory where the PalindromeChecker.java file is located.
5. Compile the program using the command: javac PalindromeChecker.java
6. Run the compiled program using the command: java PalindromeChecker
7. Observe the output in the terminal, which will indicate whether the input string is a palindrome.

Conclusion

This program effectively checks if a string is a palindrome, demonstrating the use of string manipulation and logical conditions in Java.