trouble writing to file after while loop

[Skaperen]

even better is to use one-way encryption.

Do you mean hashing? From what I can tell the whole point of encryption is that it's reversible under the right circumstances.

reversibility is not needed if the only thing you need to do is compare passwords such as testing the password provided as part of the login credentials.  you still need to consider other things like salting.

if you do need to reverse it, then, yes, you do need (very) strong encryption and to carefully handle everything.  maybe PKC, depending on what you are doing.

[micseydel]

I was not suggesting reversibility was needed. In fact, I was suggesting that because reversibility is not needed, that it should be a hash rather than encryption.