Test Your Anagram Skills with this C Programming Example

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Understanding Anagrams
3. Checking Anagrams in C Program
4. Implementing the Anagram Check Function
5. Testing the Anagram Check Function
6. Conclusion

Introduction

Understanding Anagrams

Checking Anagrams in C Program

Implementing the Anagram Check Function

Testing the Anagram Check Function

Conclusion

Writing an Anagram Checker in C Program

In this article, we will explore how to write a C program that checks whether two words are anagrams or not. Anagrams are words that can be rearranged to form another word. For example, the words "listen" and "silent" are anagrams because we can rearrange the letters of "listen" to get "silent" and vice versa.

We will be ignoring the case of the words, so uppercase and lowercase letters will be treated as the same. Additionally, two words are considered anagrams if they have the same count of each letter. For example, if the word "listen" has the same number of 'l', 'i', 's', 't', 'e', and 'n' characters as the word "silent", then they are considered anagrams.

To start, let's define our test words. We will use the words "listen" and "silent" as our test case since we know they are anagrams.

char* word1 = "listen";
char* word2 = "silent";

Next, we will create a function called checkAnagram that takes two strings as arguments and returns a boolean value indicating whether the words are anagrams or not. We will use bool as the return type since the words can either be anagrams or not. To use the bool type, we need to include the <stdbool.h> library.

#include <stdbool.h>

We will also include the <string.h> library since it provides useful functions like strlen that will help us in our implementation.

Our checkAnagram function will follow the steps outlined below:

1. Get the length of each word using the strlen function.
2. Create count arrays for each word to keep track of the occurrence of each letter.
3. Iterate through each character in the first word and update the count array accordingly.
4. Repeat step 3 for the second word.
5. Compare the count arrays for each letter. If any counts are different, return false. If all counts are the same, return true.

Let's write the code for our checkAnagram function:

bool checkAnagram(char* word1, char* word2) {
    int len1 = strlen(word1);
    int len2 = strlen(word2);
    int count1[26] = {0};
    int count2[26] = {0};

    for (int i = 0; i < len1; i++) {
        char lower = tolower(word1[i]);
        count1[lower - 'a']++;
    }

    for (int i = 0; i < len2; i++) {
        char lower = tolower(word2[i]);
        count2[lower - 'a']++;
    }

    for (int i = 0; i < 26; i++) {
        if (count1[i] != count2[i]) {
            return false;
        }
    }

    return true;
}

Now that we have implemented the checkAnagram function, let's test it with our test words and print the result.

if (checkAnagram(word1, word2)) {
    printf("The words are anagrams.");
} else {
    printf("The words are not anagrams.");
}

If we compile and run the program, we should see the output "The words are anagrams" since "listen" and "silent" are anagrams.

In conclusion, we have successfully implemented a C program that can check whether two words are anagrams or not. This program can be useful in various applications where word manipulation is required. By understanding the concept of anagrams and utilizing basic string manipulation techniques, we can solve the problem efficiently.

Pros:

• Efficient solution for checking anagrams in a C program.
• Can handle words of different lengths and cases.

Cons:

• Limited to checking anagrams in a C program.
• Requires the use of libraries and built-in functions.

Highlights

• Introduction to anagrams and their characteristics.
• Step-by-step explanation of implementing an anagram check function in C.
• Testing and verifying the functionality of the implemented function.
• Pros and cons of the solution.

FAQ

Q: What are anagrams? A: Anagrams are words or phrases that can be formed by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase.

Q: How does the checkAnagram function work? A: The checkAnagram function counts the occurrence of each letter in the given words and compares the counts. If the counts are the same for all letters, the function considers the words as anagrams.

Q: Are anagrams case-sensitive? A: No, the implementation considers anagrams to be case-insensitive, meaning uppercase and lowercase letters are treated the same.

Q: Can the checkAnagram function handle words of different lengths? A: Yes, the function can handle words of different lengths by comparing the counts of each letter. If the counts differ, the words are not considered anagrams.