Student Name: __________________
Class and Section __________________
Total Points (20 pts) __________________
Due: Nov 6, 2017 before the class
Project: Validating Credit Cards
CSCI 1301 Introduction to Programming Principles
Armstrong Atlantic State University
Problem Description:
Credit card numbers follow certain patterns. A credit card number must have between 13
and 16 digits. It must start with:
4 for Visa cards
5 for Master cards
37 for American Express cards
6 for Discover cards
In 1954, Hans Luhn of IBM proposed an algorithm for validating credit card numbers.
The algorithm is useful to determine if a card number is entered correctly or if a credit
card is scanned correctly by a scanner. Almost all credit card numbers are generated
following this validity check, commonly known as the Luhn check or the Mod 10 check,
which can be described as follows (for illustration, consider the card number
4388576018402626):
1. Double every second digit from right to left. If doubling of a digit results in a two-digit
number, add up the two digits to get a single-digit number.
2. Now add all single-digit numbers from Step 1.
4 + 4 + 8 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 7 + 8 = 37