title: Checking to see if a string is a palindrome with String.equals()
body: <p>I had a question regarding a basic program I was writing said whether a word such as racecar is a palindrome or not. </p>
  
  <p>All my methods which reverse the string, strip the punctuation work but the one that determines if it is a palindrome does not.</p>
  
  <pre><code>/**
  * Determines if a series of letters makes a palinedrome
  * 
  * @param  str   All punctuation and spaces have been removed 
  *               before this method is called.  
  * @return true  if phrase is a palindrome,
  *         false otherwise.
  */
  public boolean isPalindrome(String str)
  {
     String d = reverseString (str); 
     return( str.equals (reverseString (str) ) ); 
  
  }
  </code></pre>