Anagram Checker: Compare Strings using Sorting and Normalization
In this C++ exercise, you will develop a program that determines if two strings are anagrams of each other. An anagram is formed by rearranging the letters of one word to produce another, using all original letters exactly once (e.g., "listen" and "silent").
This task is perfect for practicing string manipulation, sorting techniques, and logical comparison in C++.
Core Concepts
Case Normalization
Using transform with ::tolower ensures that "Listen" and "silent" are correctly identified as anagrams regardless of casing.
Sort & Compare
By sorting both strings alphabetically, two anagrams will result in identical character sequences, making comparison trivial.
Pro Tip: Whitespace!
While this basic version uses cin (which stops at spaces), for multi-word anagrams (like "dormitory" and "dirty room"), you would need to remove spaces and use getline().
Objectives
- 1. Prompt the user to input two separate strings.
- 2. Standardize the strings by converting all characters to lowercase.
- 3. Sort both strings alphabetically using the
<algorithm>library. - 4. Compare the results and display a clear confirmation message.
Example C++ Code
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm> // Needed for sort and transform
#include <string>
using namespace std;
// Boolean function to handle the logic
bool areAnagrams(string str1, string str2) {
// 1. Normalize both strings to lowercase
transform(str1.begin(), str1.end(), str1.begin(), ::tolower);
transform(str2.begin(), str2.end(), str2.begin(), ::tolower);
// 2. Sort characters alphabetically
sort(str1.begin(), str1.end());
sort(str2.begin(), str2.end());
// 3. Comparison
return str1 == str2;
}
int main() {
string word1, word2;
cout << "Enter the first word: ";
cin >> word1;
cout << "Enter the second word: ";
cin >> word2;
if (areAnagrams(word1, word2)) {
cout << "The words are anagrams." << endl;
} else {
cout << "The words are not anagrams." << endl;
}
return 0;
}Console Output:
Enter the second word: silent
The words are anagrams.