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Python

Posted by Gary Gibson
Gary Gibson
5,011 Points

Error in password generator

I programmed a password generator for fun. I can get it to work fine with specific limits on length if user chooses "weak" or "medium" or "hard" for password difficulty. 

import random

password_strength = input("How strong do you want your password to be: [W]eak, [M]edium, [H]ard? ").lower()

while True:

    if password_strength == 'w':
        password_length = 6
    elif password_strength == 'm':
        password_length = 12
    elif password_strength == 'h':
        password_length = 18
    else:
        continue


    char_list = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ!@#$%^&*1234567890'

    password = ''

    for number in range(0, password_length):
        random_position = random.randint(0, len(char_list)+1)

        password_character = char_list[random_position]

        password += password_character

    print(password)
    break

But when I try to sub in random ranges, I get errors half the time. How would you introduce a random element to this area?

    if password_strength == 'w':
        password_length = 6
    elif password_strength == 'm':
        password_length = 12
    elif password_strength == 'h':
        password_length = 18
    else:
        continue

1 Answer

Andreas cormack
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Andreas cormack
Python Web Development Techdegree Graduate 33,011 Points

Hi Gary

Your error is in the for loop. See below

 for number in range(0, password_length):
        random_position = random.randint(0, len(char_list)-1) # change +1 to -1. Even though your length of char_list
        # is 70 the index for the last character is 69 and not 70. So you want to get a random number between 0 and 69
       # with the +1 you end up with a range of 0 and 70 which causes the out of index error

        password_character = char_list[random_position]

        password += password_character

loving the code nice one !!

Gary Gibson
Gary Gibson
5,011 Points

Thanks, Andreas!!

And now this works...

        if password_strength == 'w':
            password_length = random.randint(2,6)
        elif password_strength == 'm':
            password_length = random.randint(7,12)
        elif password_strength == 'h':
            password_length = random.randint(13,18)
        elif password_strength not in 'wmh':
            difficulty_input()