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The following example has been written by ����ý Bitesize consultants as a suggestion of the type of problem that may appear in an exam paper.

The problem

A program that validates a password is required. The password must be at least five characters long and include at least one upper case (u/c) character, one lower case (l/c) character and a number.

Decompose the problem

The first step is to break down (decompose) the overall problem into several smaller, more easily solved problems:

1. Input the password.
2. Check that the password is at least five characters in length
3. If the password is not at least five characters, an error has occurred
4. If the password is at least five characters, then inspect each character in the password:
   • If the character is an upper case character, add one to the upper case character total
   • If the character is a lower case character, add one to the lower case character total
   • If the character is a number, add one to the number total
5. If there is not at least one upperc ase character, one lower case character and one number, an error has occurred.
6. If an error has occurred, loop back to the beginning.
7. Otherwise, accept the password.

Variables and constants

From the above, the solution will require the following variables. These values will change as the program is run:

No constants are required.