How do you reverse a string in place in C or C++?

Question

How do you reverse a string in C or C++ without requiring a separate buffer to hold the reversed string?

Answer 1

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdbool.h>

unsigned char * utf8_reverse(const unsigned char *, int);
void assert_true(bool);

int main(void)
{
    unsigned char str[] = "mañana mañana";
    unsigned char *ret = utf8_reverse(str,  strlen((const char *) str) + 1);

    printf("%s\n", ret);
    assert_true(0 == strncmp((const char *) ret, "anãnam anañam", strlen("anãnam anañam") + 1));

    free(ret);

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

unsigned char * utf8_reverse(const unsigned char *str, int size)
{
    unsigned char *ret = calloc(size, sizeof(unsigned char*));
    int ret_size = 0;
    int pos = size - 2;
    int char_size = 0;

    if (str ==  NULL) {
        fprintf(stderr, "failed to allocate memory.\n");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

    while (pos > -1) {

        if (str[pos] < 0x80) {
            char_size = 1;
        } else if (pos > 0 && str[pos - 1] > 0xC1 && str[pos - 1] < 0xE0) {
            char_size = 2;
        } else if (pos > 1 && str[pos - 2] > 0xDF && str[pos - 2] < 0xF0) {
            char_size = 3;
        } else if (pos > 2 && str[pos - 3] > 0xEF && str[pos - 3] < 0xF5) {
            char_size = 4;
        } else {
            char_size = 1;
        }

        pos -= char_size;
        memcpy(ret + ret_size, str + pos + 1, char_size);
        ret_size += char_size;
    }    

    ret[ret_size] = '\0';

    return ret;
}

void assert_true(bool boolean)
{
    puts(boolean == true ? "true" : "false");
}

Answer 2

With C++ lambda:

 auto reverse = [](std::string& s) -> std::string {
        size_t start = 0, end = s.length() -1;
        char temp;

        while (start < end) {
          temp = s[start];
          s[start++] = s[end];
          s[end--] = temp;
        } 

        return s;
   };

Answer 3

If you don't need to store it, you can reduce the time spent like this:

void showReverse(char s[], int length)
{
    printf("Reversed String without storing is ");
    //could use another variable to test for length, keeping length whole.
    //assumes contiguous memory
    for (; length > 0; length--)
    {
        printf("%c", *(s+ length-1) );
    }
    printf("\n");
}

Answer 4

Recursive function to reverse a string in place (no extra buffer, malloc).

Short, sexy code. Bad, bad stack usage.

#include <stdio.h>

/* Store the each value and move to next char going down
 * the stack. Assign value to start ptr and increment 
 * when coming back up the stack (return).
 * Neat code, horrible stack usage.
 *
 * val - value of current pointer.
 * s - start pointer
 * n - next char pointer in string.
 */
char *reverse_r(char val, char *s, char *n)
{
    if (*n)
        s = reverse_r(*n, s, n+1);
   *s = val;
   return s+1;
}

/*
 * expect the string to be passed as argv[1]
 */
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    char *aString;

    if (argc < 2)
    {
        printf("Usage: RSIP <string>\n");
        return 0;
    }

    aString = argv[1];
    printf("String to reverse: %s\n", aString );

    reverse_r(*aString, aString, aString+1); 
    printf("Reversed String:   %s\n", aString );

    return 0;
}

Answer 5

#include <algorithm>
std::reverse(str.begin(), str.end());

This is the simplest way in C++.

Answer 6

Note that the beauty of std::reverse is that it works with char * strings and std::wstrings just as well as std::strings

void strrev(char *str)
{
    if (str == NULL)
        return;
    std::reverse(str, str + strlen(str));
}