Thread: How to make a very simple Password Strength indicator?

Hi there! I am developing a number of Data Structures in Bluej. Iv created a nice little arraylist program, and want to add a password generator to this program. People are already prestored within the arraylist, and contain attributes such as ID, name, password, etc. I can search a persons name within the list and then view their ID, password, and encrypted password. I want to add a field which will show password strength, bare in mind the password is already stored within the program and will not be entered via the user.

I understand that this could be done via a regular expression, or using some count method where certain goals/sets of characters increase the count which determine strength. I understand the very basic concepts of java and programming, but really don't know how to put this idea into code or something.. Can someone help? Or direct me to a good source that is most relevant to my situation?

Thank You!

What would be your definition of a "simple" indicator?
What are the requirements for a good password that you want to implement?

If you know what requirements you want you only have to go through them one by one. Break it down into small steps, right them down on a piece of paper or somewhere else, as plain text, and then try to translate your plain text into java code.

If you have more specific questions about implementation details or you need help with a specific error, then post again and we will try to help you.

Well, simple as in;

I start with a count that is = 1 (Very low strength password)

Other password strength levels are:

2= low strength password
3= medium strength password
4= high strength password
5= very high strength password

more than 5 character password and the count goes up by 1
if both uppercase and lowercase letters are used then count goes up by 1
if special characters (for example: £) are used then count goes up by 1
and if numbers are used then count goes up by 1

Strength would be indicated by the list of attributes of a person; so name, id, password, encrypted password, and then the status of the password strength.

I dont know how to search for specific characters such as this or to code the program to analyse the string like this. I have the idea through my basic knowledge of programming but i am unable to properly code this.

Done.

I am getting an error: incompatible types: int cannot be converted to boolean.

I understand data types and understand the conflict within the code but do not understand how i can resolve this.

 
 if (strengthCount=1) {
                strengthCount=Weak;
            }

This is where the error begins.

Error: incompatible types: int cannot be converted to boolean.

Thank you, iv adapted my code accordingly but receive a new error.

 
 if (strengthCount==1) {
                strengthCount=Weak;
            }

Error: cannot find symbol - variable Weak

I assume that i am doing to what i am trying to achieve is wrong.

IF the strengthcount is equal to 1 then i want the strengthcount to output the password as "weak". The password comes from a premade method in the program which will output the user in a list, with their information including ID, name, password, and password strength. However i want the password strength to display as "weak" or "strong" or "meduim" depending on their password of course. I dont understand how i can convert the count number to a word that can be outputted in the program.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. If you could modify my example so that it could work in the way that i described then that would be great.

Yes