Wolfram Function Repository

Instant-use add-on functions for the Wolfram Language

Function Repository Resource:

 AtbashCipher

Source Notebook

Encipher a string using the Atbash cipher

Contributed by: Sander Huisman

ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"][string]

enciphers or deciphers string using the Atbash cipher.

ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"][string,{c1,c2,…}]

enciphers or deciphers string using the alphabet ci.

ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"][string,{{c1,1,c1,2,…},{c2,1,c2,2,…},…}]

enciphers or deciphers string using the alphabets ci.

Details and Options

ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"] converts the letters "a"–"z" to the letters "z"–"a".
ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"] also works on the modern Hebrew alphabet, converting the letters "א"–"ת" to "ת"–"א" as described in the corresponding Wikipedia article.
The case of the letters are retained.

Examples

Basic Examples (3) 

Encipher a string:

In[1]:=
ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"]["apple"]
Out[1]=

Encipher a sentence:

In[2]:=
ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"]["Wolfram language is fun!"]
Out[2]=

Encipher the Hebrew word for "sun":

In[3]:=
ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"]["שמש"]
Out[3]=

Scope (4) 

AtbashCipher automatically threads over lists of strings:

In[4]:=
ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"][{"apple", "banana", "peach"}]
Out[4]=

Use a custom collation (ordering) of an alphabet:

In[5]:=
alphabet = {"q", "w", "e", "r", "t", "y", "u", "i", "o", "p", "a", "s", "d", "f", "g", "h", "j", "k", "l", "z", "x", "c", "v", "b", "n", "m"}; ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"]["sander", alphabet]
Out[6]=

The function is still its own inverse:

In[7]:=
ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"][ ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"]["sander", alphabet], alphabet]
Out[7]=

Define an Atbash cipher for the Greek alphabet:

In[8]:=
ResourceFunction[ "AtbashCipher"]["\[Pi]\[Alpha]\[Nu]\[Tau]\[Alpha] \[Rho]\[CurlyEpsilon]\[Iota]", Alphabet["Greek"]]
Out[8]=

Use several alphabets: the standard lower case alphabet, the uppercase alphabet and the numbers. Each of which will get "inverted" in the Atbash cipher:

In[9]:=
ResourceFunction[ "AtbashCipher"]["The secret code is 01234", {Alphabet[], ToUpperCase[Alphabet[]], IntegerString[Range[0, 9]]}]
Out[9]=

Properties and Relations (1) 

AtbashCipher is an involutory function, i.e. it is its own inverse:

In[10]:=
ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"][ ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"]["sander"]]
Out[10]=

Possible Issues (3) 

Spaces, numbers and letters outside the regular English alphabet are not transformed:

In[11]:=
ResourceFunction[ "AtbashCipher"]["It was Chloë who opened the 2 piñatas"]
Out[11]=

Use RemoveDiacritics, StringDelete, IntegerName, and ToLowerCase to transform the message:

In[12]:=
string = StringReplace[ ToLowerCase[ StringDelete[ RemoveDiacritics["It was Chloë who opened the 2 piñatas"], " "]], r : Longest[DigitCharacter ..] :> IntegerName[ToExpression@r]]
Out[12]=

Enciphering the transformed message results in a much harder to crack cipher:

In[13]:=
ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"][string]
Out[13]=

Neat Examples (1) 

Find English words that encipher to another English word:

In[14]:=
dict = DictionaryLookup[]; dict = Select[dict, StringLength/*GreaterEqualThan[3]]; dicts = GatherBy[dict, StringLength]; matches = With[{d = #}, Select[d, MemberQ[d, ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"][#]] &]] & /@ dicts; matches = Join @@ matches; Column[TwoWayRule @@@ DeleteDuplicatesBy[{#, ResourceFunction["AtbashCipher"][#]} & /@ matches, Sort]]
Out[19]=

Publisher

SHuisman

Version History

  • 2.0.0 – 29 July 2019
  • 1.0.0 – 03 July 2019

Related Resources

License Information