# Formula for E(m) of the Atbash Cipher

I'm studying mathematical cryptography and have been asked to find the encryption function for the Atbash cipher I know that it means a=z, b=y, c=x and so on but putting it into a formula has me a bit stuck. I already know affine ciphers version of the atbash is $-(x+1) mod m$

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

## 1 Answer

The math goes: add the integer assigned to a, the integer assigned to z, and from that constant (which can be pre-computed) subtract the integer assigned to the letter to encode; that gives the integer assigned to the encoded letter.

This works for a to z and encodings with consecurive letters of the alphabet assigned consecutive integer values (including ASCII; assigning 0 to a and 25 to z; assigning 1 to a and 26 to z). Usual associativity and commutativity rules for addition in $\mathbb Z$ are enough to prove that a is encoded to z, and vice versa. The rest follows by uh, intuition? Or induction if we really strive for rigor.

In C, that gives

char Atbash(char x) {
return ('a'+'z')-x;
}