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Q&A How can the Caesar cipher be implemented in Java?

The formulas for encryption and decryption require a positive value of the modulo operation. However, this is not guaranteed for all implementations of the modulo operator. For instance, in Python ...

posted 2y ago by Holden‭

Answer
#1: Initial revision by user avatar Holden‭ · 2022-03-08T19:34:53Z (over 2 years ago)
The formulas for encryption and decryption require a positive value of the modulo operation. However, this is not guaranteed for all implementations of the modulo operator. For instance, in Python the modulo value is always positive (e.g. `-2 % 5 = 3`), while in Java it can be negative (e.g. `-2 % 5 = -2`).

The following Java implementation reliably generates a *positive* value:

```java
private static int mod(int a, int b) {
    return ((a % b) + b) % b;
}
```

---------

Since encryption and decryption differ only in the sign of `shift`, encryption and decryption can be implemented together. A possible implementation for e.g. the alphabet `ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzۤ$%&` could be:

```java
private static String encryptDecrypt(String text, int shift) {
	
    String alphabet = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzۤ$%&";
    int size = alphabet.length(); 
	
    StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer();
    for (int i = 0; i < text.length(); i++) {
        int u = alphabet.indexOf(text.charAt(i));
        if (u == -1) {
            throw new RuntimeException(text.charAt(i) + " not allowed...");
        }
        int v = mod(u + shift, size);
        result.append(alphabet.charAt(v));
    }

    return result.toString();
}
```

----------

Test: 

```java
String plaintext = "ۤ$%&0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
String ciphertext = encryptDecrypt(plaintext, 3); 	// Encryption: right shift
String decrypted = encryptDecrypt(ciphertext, -3);	// Decryption: left shift
System.out.println(plaintext);		// ۤ$%&0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
System.out.println(ciphertext);		// %&ABC3456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzۤ$DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ012
System.out.println(decrypted);		// ۤ$%&0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ	
```