C++ How would I display characters in a string as a number

Question

I am working on a palindrome program for class. I've written the program and it works. The issue I'm having is the output. I can't figure out how to change the characters into the number they are associated with. Here is my code:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <iomanip>

using namespace std;

int main ()
{
    string word;
    int i;
    int length;
    int counter = 0;

    cout << "Please enter a word." << endl;
    getline (cin,word);

    cout << "The length of the word is " << word.length() << "." << endl;

    length = word.length();

    for (i=0;i < length ; i++)
    {
        cout << "Checking element " << word[i] << " with element " word[length-i-1] << "." << endl;

        if (word[i] != word[length-i-1])
        {
                counter = 1; 
                break;
        }

    }

    if (counter)
    {
         cout << "NO: it is not a palindrome." << endl;
    }
    else
    {
         cout << "YES: it is a palindrome." << endl;
    }
    return 0;
}

The output I'm getting displays all the characters of the string and looks like this: my output

Please enter a word
hannah
Checking element h with element h
Checking element a with element a
Checking element n with element n

(etc)

Yes: it is a palindrome.

But, I need the output to display the characters as their placement number in the string, which looks like this:

what output should be

Please enter a word
hannah
Checking element 0 with element 5
Checking element 1 with element 4
Checking element 2 with element 3 
Yes: it is a palindrome.

Any hints or tips would be great. I just feel like I've tried everything I know, and it still won't look right. Thank you!

Answer 1

Instead of using :

cout << "Checking element " << word[i] << " with element " word[length-i-1] << "." << endl;

why not use:

cout << "Checking element " << i << " with element " << (length-i-1) << "." << endl;