Any help would be fantastic! Struggling to write a function that returns True if the parameter 'string' starts and ends with lowercase letters

Question

Write a function x_at_either_end(string) that takes a string string as a parameter, which may be empty, and returns a boolean. It returns True if and only if the string string starts or ends with the lower-case character x.

We recommend using the startswith and endswith methods of str.

def x_at_either_end(string):
    '''Returns true if string parameter starts and ends with 
    lowercase letter'''
    if (string.startswith(string, x )):
        return True
    if (string.endswith(string, x )):
        return True
    return False

print(x_at_either_end('Ping pong'))
print(x_at_either_end('pax'))
print(x_at_either_end('xposure'))

Does [this](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12934997/how-to-detect-lowercase-letters-in-python) answer your question? — Abhyuday Vaish, Mar 22 '22 at 09:34
Your question contradicts the comment in the code. Is it **and** or **or**? The code seems to imply that it's **or** — DarkKnight, Mar 22 '22 at 09:50

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 22 '22 at 09:42

It seems that you're passing the string as an argument to startswith and endswith, which is not the proper way to use those functions. In addition, you're passing the variable x as an argument when you probably want to pass the string 'x'. It should look something like this:

if string.startswith('x'):

As for the way you've written your question: it's a good idea to list the problem you're having (whether your program is encountering an exception or just doing something unexpected). You should also make sure that the title and the question are consistent (one says "starts and ends with" and the other says "starts or ends with").

If you want to read more about using startswith and endswith, look here: https://www.programiz.com/python-programming/methods/string/startswith

DollarAkshay · Answer 2 · 2022-03-22T09:48:14.460

0

You can make use of the islower() function to check the character at a particular index. s[-1] checks for the last element.

def x_at_either_end(s):
    if len(s) == 0:
        return False
    return s[0].islower() or s[-1].islower()

I would not recommend using startswith and endswith for this.

edited Mar 22 '22 at 09:48

answered Mar 22 '22 at 09:38

DollarAkshay

2,063
1
21
39

OP says that the string may be empty and also the check should be *or* not *and* – DarkKnight Mar 22 '22 at 09:45
@ArthurKing My bad. Added a check for that. The title said `and` so I went with that. But I guess OP wants `or` behaviour – DollarAkshay Mar 22 '22 at 09:50

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 22 '22 at 09:54

0

There are ambiguities in the question so this may not be quite what is needed. However:

def x_at_either_end(s):
    return len(s) > 0 and (s[0].islower() or s[-1].islower())

answered Mar 22 '22 at 09:54

DarkKnight

19,739
3
6
22

Any help would be fantastic! Struggling to write a function that returns True if the parameter 'string' starts and ends with lowercase letters

3 Answers3