How to Check a Number is Palindrome in Python?

Reversing the string

To determine if a number is a palindrome, we need to compare its original form to its reversed form. In Python, we can reverse a string using the slicing technique. The slicing operation enables us to access a range of characters within the string using start: stop step syntax. Here’s how you can reverse a string:

reversed_str_number = str_number[::-1]

In this example, [::-1] signifies that we want to slice the string in reverse order, effectively reversing the entire string.

Comparing the original and reversed strings

Now that we have converted the number into a string and reversed it, we can compare the two strings to determine if the number is a palindrome. By using a simple if-else statement, we can verify whether the original number and its reversed form are equal. Let’s see this in action:

if str_number == reversed_str_number:

    print("Congratulations! The number is a palindrome.")

else:

     print("Sorry, but the number is not a palindrome.")

By comparing str_number and reversed_str_number using the == operator, we can find out if the number is it or not. If they are equal, we can display a congratulatory message; otherwise, we display an apology message.

Using a Palindrome Checker function

While the above method works perfectly fine, it can be more efficient to encapsulate the palindrome checking logic within a function. This allows us to reuse the code for different numbers. Here’s an example of a function that checks if a number is a palindrome:

def is_palindrome(number):

    str_number = 

    str_number = str(number)

    reversed_str_number = str_number[

    str_number = str(number)

    reversed_str_number = str_number[::-1]

    if str_number == reversed_str_number:

        return True

    else:

        return False

With this function, we can call it as many times as needed, passing a number as an argument to determine whether it’s a palindrome or not. This way, your code becomes more organized, modular, and easier to understand.

Bonus Tip – Handling negative numbers

So far, we have assumed that the numbers we are checking are positive integers. But what if we want to include negative numbers? The good news is we can handle this situation with a small adjustment in our code. By implementing a conditional check and converting the number to an absolute value, we can accurately determine if a negative number is a palindrome. Let’s see how this works:

def is_palindrome(number):

    str_number = str(abs(number))

    reversed_str_number = str_number[::-1]

    if str_number == reversed_str_number:

       return True

    else:

       return False

By applying abs() to the number, we convert it to its absolute value, ensuring that the negative sign does not affect the comparison. Now, we can confidently pass both positive and negative numbers to the is_palindrome() function for accurate results.