Basic question from pure beginner

[Scott David Daniels]

Charles Yeomans wrote:
> Let me offer a bit of editing....
> Finally, I'd remove correct_password_given from the loop test, and 
> replace it with a break statement when the correct password is entered.
> 
> password = "qwerty"
> correct_password_given = False
> attemptcount = 0
> MaxAttempts = 3
> while attemptcount < MaxAttempts:
>   guess = raw_input("Enter your password: ")
>   guess = str(guess)
>   if guess != password:
>       print "Access Denied"
>       attemptcount = attemptcount + 1
>   else:
>       print "Password Confirmed"
>       correct_password_given = True
>       break


And even simpler:
     PASSWORD = "qwerty"
     MAXRETRY = 3
     for attempt in range(MAXRETRY):
         if raw_input('Enter your password: ') == PASSWORD:
             print 'Password confirmed'
             break # this exits the for loop
         print 'Access denied: attempt %s of %s' % (attempt+1, MAXRETRY)
     else:
         # The else for a for statement is not executed for breaks,
         # So indicates the end of testing without a match
         raise SystemExit # Or whatever you'd rather do.

--Scott David Daniels
Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org