What is the best way to check the strength of a password?

Question

What is the best way of ensuring that a user supplied password is a strong password in a registration or change password form?

One idea I had (in python)

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Answer 1

Well this is what I use:

   var getStrength = function (passwd) {
    intScore = 0;
    intScore = (intScore + passwd.length);
    if (passwd.match(/[a-z]/)) {
        intScore = (intScore + 1);
    }
    if (passwd.match(/[A-Z]/)) {
        intScore = (intScore + 5);
    }
    if (passwd.match(/\d+/)) {
        intScore = (intScore + 5);
    }
    if (passwd.match(/(\d.*\d)/)) {
        intScore = (intScore + 5);
    }
    if (passwd.match(/[!,@#$%^&*?_~]/)) {
        intScore = (intScore + 5);
    }
    if (passwd.match(/([!,@#$%^&*?_~].*[!,@#$%^&*?_~])/)) {
        intScore = (intScore + 5);
    }
    if (passwd.match(/[a-z]/) && passwd.match(/[A-Z]/)) {
        intScore = (intScore + 2);
    }
    if (passwd.match(/\d/) && passwd.match(/\D/)) {
        intScore = (intScore + 2);
    }
    if (passwd.match(/[a-z]/) && passwd.match(/[A-Z]/) && passwd.match(/\d/) && passwd.match(/[!,@#$%^&*?_~]/)) {
        intScore = (intScore + 2);
    }
    return intScore;
}