Simple JS palindrome function getting "unexpected identifier" error

Question

This simple little function is throwing an "unexpected identifier" error and I don't know why.

function palindromeCheck(word) {
    var reversed = word.split("").reverse().join("");
    if (reversed === word) {
    return "Yay, " + word + " is a palindrome!";
  } else {
    return "Drats, " + word + " isn't a palindrome.";
  };
};

palindromeCheck("racecar");

Same for me (tested in Firefox console). What browser are you using? — PurkkaKoodari, Apr 30 '13 at 17:59
Some browsers might have an issue with the `;` after the closing bracing of the `else` block. — Ayush, Apr 30 '13 at 18:01
Also, you ended your `else` with `};` so the semicolon might be causing an issue with your browser. — David Starkey, Apr 30 '13 at 18:02
I'd be very interested in hearing which browser would not accept a semicolon after an else block. — JJJ, Apr 30 '13 at 18:02
Light Room is failing me. Worked in the console for me as well. Didn't expect it to be a Light Room issue. The semicolon was out of place, but wasn't the cause of the issue. @DavidStarkey I was just trying to play with explicitness to see if that was the issue. Apparently not. — Scott Magdalein, Apr 30 '13 at 18:03
@DavidStarkey, because `===` is faster and it's considered a best practice to always use it: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/359494/javascript-vs-does-it-matter-which-equal-operator-i-use — Jonah, Apr 30 '13 at 18:14

kennebec · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-30T23:35:09.317

You solved your problem, but you may have another-

palindromes can be multiple words (or digits) with punctuation and capital or lower case letters.

'Able was I, ere I saw Elba.' is a palindrome, for example that fails your test.

(So would 'Racecar' or 'race car', which are also palindromes.)

A better test would be to strip everything not a letter or digit, and ignore the case.

function isPalindrome(word){
    var w= word.toLowerCase().replace(/[^0-9a-z]+/g, '');
    for(var i= 0, L= w.length-1;i<L;i++, L--){
        if(w[i]!== w[L]) return false;
    }
    return true;
}

Simple JS palindrome function getting "unexpected identifier" error

1 Answers1