Final answer:
The function middle() in Python is designed to return the middle character(s) of a given string. It calculates the center index or indices based on the length's parity and returns the appropriate substring. A sample main function is provided to test various strings with this function.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student has requested a function called middle() which takes a string str and returns the middle characters. Depending on whether str has an odd or even number of characters, the function will return one or two central characters, respectively. Here is a possible way to implement the middle() function in Python:
def middle(str):
length = len(str)
if length % 2 == 1:
return str[length // 2]
else:
middle1 = length // 2 - 1
middle2 = length // 2
return str[middle1] + str[middle2]
And here's an example of a main function to test it:
def main():
test_strings = ['abc', 'abcd', 'abcde', 'abcdef']
for s in test_strings:
print(f'Middle characters of \'{s}\': {middle(s)}')
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()