Palindrome program isn't comparing properly - c++

Question

I'm currently learning about vectors and trying to make a palindrome program using them. This is a simple program and so far, I'm trying to make it identify "I am what am I." as a palindrome properly. This is my program so far:
#include <vector>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
vector <string> sentVec;
void getSent(string sent);
void readBackwards(string sent);
int main()
{
string sent;
getSent(sent);
readBackwards(sent);
return 0;
}
void getSent(string sent)
{
cout << "Enter your sentence:" << endl;
getline (cin,sent);
string currentWord, currentLetter;
for (int i = 0; i < sent.length(); i++)
{
currentLetter = sent[i];
if (currentLetter == " ") // inserts word
{
currentWord += sent[i];
sentVec.push_back(currentWord);
currentWord = "";
}
else if (currentLetter == ".") // inserts period
{
sentVec.push_back(currentWord);
currentWord = sent[i];
sentVec.push_back(currentWord);
}
else
{
currentWord += sent[i];
}
}
}
void readBackwards(string sent)
{
string sentForwards, sentBackwards;
// create sentence forwards and backwards without the period.
for (int i = 0; i < sentVec.size() - 1; i++)
{
sentForwards += sentVec[i];
}
for (int j = sentVec.size() - 2; j >= 0; j--)
{
sentBackwards += sentVec[j];
if (j == sentVec.size() - 2)
{
sentBackwards += " ";
}
}
cout << "Sentence forwards is: " << sentForwards << endl;
cout << "Sentence backwards is: " << sentBackwards << endl;
if (sentForwards == sentBackwards)
{
cout << "This sentence reads the same backwards as forwards." << endl;
}
else
{
cout << "This sentence does not read the same backwards as forwards." << endl;
}
}
When I run this program, it prints:
Enter your sentence:
I am what am I.
Sentence forwards is: I am what am I
Sentence backwards is: I am what am I
This sentence does not read the same backwards as forwards.
Why does this not trigger the if loop when comparing the two sentences?

Answer 1

Because sentBackwards isn't the same as sentForwards, because sentBackwards has a trailing whitespace at the end, and thus they aren't the same.

Answer 2

I am unsure how your program detects palindromes, but here is a simple iterative method:
#include <string>
bool isPalindrome(std::string in) {
for (int i = 0; i < in.size() / 2; i++) {
if (in[i] != in[in.size() - 1 - i]) {
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
It returns true if the string passed as an argument is a palindrome

Answer 3

You should not only learn about vector, but also the STL algorithm functions such as std::reverse.
As the other answer given pointed out, one vector has a trailing whitespace. You could have avoided all of that by simply taking the original vector, copying it to another vector, and calling std::reverse. There is no need to write a loop:
void readBackwards()
{
// copy the vector
std::vector<std::string> sentBackwards = sentVec;
// reverse it
std::reverse(sentBackwards.begin(), sentBackwards.end());
// see if they're equal
if (sentVec == sentBackwards)
cout << "This sentence reads the same backwards as forwards." << endl;
else
cout << "This sentence does not read the same backwards as forwards." << endl;
}
This works, since std::vector has an overloaded operator == that compares the items in each of the two vectors and returns true if all items are the same.
In addition to this, reading into a vector can be accomplished much more easily than what you attempted.
#include <sstream>
#include <algorithm>
//...
void getSent(string sent)
{
// remove the periods(s)
auto iter = std::remove_if(sent.begin(), sent.end(), [] (char ch) { return ch == '.';});
sent.erase(iter, sent.end());
// copy the data to a vector
std::istringstream iss(sent);
string currentword;
while ( iss >> currentword)
sentVec.push_back(currentword);
}
Note that we use the std::istringstream to serve as the space delimited parser, alleviating the need to write a loop looking for the space. Also, the std::remove_if algorithm is used to remove any period characters from the string before we start to store the individual strings into a vector.
So basically, the only loop in this whole setup is the while to read from the stream into the vector. Everything else is accomplished by using the algorithm functions, and taking advantage of the various member functions of std::vector (like the overloaded ==)