Python Program to find mirror characters in a string

This article teaches you how to write a Python program to find mirror characters in a string. A mirror character is the alphabetically opposite character − 'a' mirrors to 'z', 'b' to 'y', and so on.

Understanding Mirror Characters

Mirror characters are pairs of letters that are equidistant from both ends of the alphabet. For example:

• 'a' (1st letter) mirrors to 'z' (26th letter)

• 'b' (2nd letter) mirrors to 'y' (25th letter)

• 'c' (3rd letter) mirrors to 'x' (24th letter)

Input-Output Example

Given a string and a position, we mirror characters from that position onwards ?

Input: string = "Coding", position = 3
Output: "Cowrmt"

Here, characters from position 3 onwards ('d', 'i', 'n', 'g') are mirrored to ('w', 'r', 'm', 't').

Using Loops and ASCII Values

This approach uses ASCII values to calculate mirror characters directly ?

def mirror_characters(text, position):
    result = ""
    
    # Keep characters before position unchanged
    for i in range(position):
        result += text[i]
    
    # Mirror characters from position onwards
    for i in range(position, len(text)):
        char = text[i]
        if 'a' 

Original: Coding
Mirrored from position 2: Cowrmt


Using Dictionary Mapping

This approach creates a dictionary to map each letter to its mirror character ?

def mirror_with_dict(text, position):
    # Create mirror dictionary
    alphabet = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
    reversed_alphabet = 'zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba'
    mirror_dict = dict(zip(alphabet, reversed_alphabet))
    
    # Add uppercase mapping
    upper_dict = dict(zip(alphabet.upper(), reversed_alphabet.upper()))
    mirror_dict.update(upper_dict)
    
    result = ""
    
    # Keep prefix unchanged
    result += text[:position]
    
    # Mirror suffix
    for char in text[position:]:
        if char in mirror_dict:
            result += mirror_dict[char]
        else:
            result += char  # Non-alphabetic characters unchanged
    
    return result

# Example usage
text = "TutorialsPoint"
position = 3
result = mirror_with_dict(text, position)
print(f"Original: {text}")
print(f"Mirrored from position {position}: {result}")


Original: TutorialsPoint
Mirrored from position 3: TutlirzohKlrmg


Complete Example with User Input

Here's a complete program that handles both uppercase and lowercase letters ?

def mirror_string(text, start_pos):
    """
    Mirror characters in a string from given position onwards
    """
    def get_mirror(char):
        if 'a'  '{result}'")


'Hello' from position 2 -> 'Heooo'
'Python' from position 1 -> 'Pbgsln'
'abc123xyz' from position 3 -> 'abc123cba'


Comparison

Conclusion

Mirror characters can be found using ASCII arithmetic or dictionary mapping. The ASCII method is more memory-efficient, while the dictionary approach offers cleaner, more readable code.