Reverse a string without using reversed() or [::-1]?

Question

I came across a strange Codecademy exercise that required a function that would take a string as input and return it in reverse order. The only problem was you could not use the reversed method or the common answer here on stackoverflow, [::-1].

Obviously in the real world of programming, one would most likely go with the extended slice method, or even using the reversed function but perhaps there is some case where this would not work?

I present a solution below in Q&A style, in case it is helpful for people in the future.

Answer 1

You can also do it with recursion:

def reverse(text):
    if len(text) <= 1:
        return text

    return reverse(text[1:]) + text[0]

And a simple example for the string hello:

   reverse(hello)
 = reverse(ello) + h           # The recursive step
 = reverse(llo) + e + h
 = reverse(lo) + l + e + h
 = reverse(o) + l + l + e + h  # Base case
 = o + l + l + e + h
 = olleh