What's wrong with my code? I use 3.5.2 python.

Question

#!/usr/bin/python

import random

import time

start_time = time.time()

sentence = "badencryption"

def randomletter(numberofletters):

    # Takes a int and will returns a list

    letters = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k',

               'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v',

               'w', 'x', 'y', 'z' ' ']

    listofletters = []

    index = numberofletters

    while index != 0:

        listofletters.append(letters[random.randint(0, 26)])

        index = index - 1

    return listofletters

def compare(alist, astr):

    # Takes a list and compares it to a str and returns a percantage

    listtostr = "".join(alist)

    matches = 0

    index = 0

    for ch in listtostr:

        if ch == astr[index]:

            matches = matches + 1

        index = index + 1

    letters = float(len(astr))

    percentage = matches / letters * 100

    return (percentage, listtostr)

percentage = 0

bestpercentage = 0

trys = 0

while percentage < 100:

    percentage, string = compare(randomletter(len(sentence)), sentence)

    trys = trys + 1

    if percentage > bestpercentage:

        bestpercentage = percentage

        print(bestpercentage)

        print(string)

        print(trys)

print((time.time() - start_time) / 60, "minutes")

Answer 1

After fixing the code, I'm still baffled about its purpose xd.
It takes a while for it to complete aswell. Even as I write this, it is still ongoing. If I knew what you were trying to do, I could give some insight on how to make it more efficient.
Anyway, to the what's wrong. Hard to guess when you didn't specify an error.
Nonetheless I put it into my intepreter and it told me the errors in your stead.

In your letters list, after z, there is ' '. It was not separated by a comma. I don't know if you meant to include this but if you did, all you need to add is the comma.

PS:
I actually removed it at first since I assumed you only meant for letters to be in there and then I changed the randint arguments accordingly.

Answer 2

Use something like PyCharm for example. It shows you Bugs/wrong lines and can help you maybe