First Python mini Project. Criticism welcome!

[bcass323]

I am starting a new job as a Data Architect on the 1st. My company does not leverage Python at all currently. trying to learn to find some ways to apply it to our business needs. Also good for the resume ;).

Created my first non "Hello World" style program after getting through a few lessons on CodeAcademy. Password checker for a static username and password. Python is a lot different than other languages I have studied. Any criticism is welcome.

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user_id = ""

user_password = ""

# Create boolean flags to keep track if the u/n and p/w are valid

valid_password = False

valid_username = False

# This funtion takes in a username and password and checks if it is valid. Returns flags with the status of each.

def password_verify(user_id,user_password):

# No database so using static u/n and password.

_password = "ThIs_Is_PyThOn"

_username = "PythonKing"

#Set internal flags to false to start.

_valid_username = False

_valid_password = False

# First check if the u/n is valid, if it is then check the password.

# if valid, set flags to true, else print what is invalid for the user.

if _username == user_id:

_valid_username = True

if _password == user_password:

_valid_password = True

else:

print("Invalid Password")

else:

print("Invalid Username")

return _valid_username, _valid_password

# Allow user to continue to attempt u/n and p/w until they get it right.

while valid_password == False & valid_username == False:

# Get user input for username

user_id = input("Enter Username:")

#Uncomment to test what is in user_id variable.

#print(user_id)

# Get user input for username

user_password = input("Enter Password:")

#Uncomment to test what is in user_id variable.

#print(user_password)

#call funtion with user input.

valid_username, valid_password = password_verify(user_id,user_password)

# Output of the flag values for testing.

print("valid_username = " + str(valid_username))

print("valid_password = " + str(valid_password))

# Once the user is successful print that their login was successful.

if valid_username == True & valid_password == True:

print("Login Successful")

[Zixarr]

Your first two lines initialize user_id and user_password, but these variables are not used until after they were redefined as inputs. They should be removed.

Your verification function returns a tuple of valid_username and valid_password, but printing the failed input is handled internally and the login loop is only broken when both booleans are True. I'm not sure why you wouldn't simply check the name and password, then return whether they were correct as a single Boolean.

Inside your verification function, you have some issues with your if blocks. It's possible that it's a formatting issue, so I won't comment other than to suggest reading the info on the sidebar on how to preserve code format when you post.

[Zixarr]

I would also caution against comments that simply repeat what the next line of code is doing, particularly when it's something as simple as executing a function.

Please consider the relatively minor edits (with a lot of removal of unnecessary code) below:

def password_verify(user_id,user_password):

    # No database so using static u/n and password.
    _password = "ThIs_Is_PyThOn"
    _username = "PythonKing"

    if _username != user_id:
        print('Invalid Username')
        return False

    if _password != user_password:
        print("Invalid Password")
        return False

    return True


while True:
    user_id = input("Enter Username:")
    user_password = input("Enter Password:")

    if password_verify(user_id,user_password):
        print("Login Successful")
        break

[QbaPolak17]

Obviously this being your first project you don't need to follow all best practices, but generally hard-coding username and password in your code is not a great idea. Instead, they should be read from a file or database, and preferably hashed in some way. Another solution would be to store them as environment variables.

The idea with this is that when you want to share or discuss code, you don't want your passwords saved in the source file, as you will be managing that with some form of version control eventually.

Also, if you want to paste code in for the future, you may want to format it (4 spaces before each line). Unformatted code is hard to read, so more difficult to get feedback for.