can someone please show me how to convert this pseudocode to python using nested loops

Question

N=5
For(rate=0.05, rate <= 0.15, rate = rate +0.05)
   For(principle=1000, principle <= 1500, principle=principle + 1000)
   simple = principle * (1 + rate * N) #Where N is the number of years
   compound = principle * (1 + rate) ^ N
   print simple + " " + compound
   End For
 End For

Answer 1

Try this:

N = 5
rate = .05
while rate <= .15:
    principle = 1000
    while principle <= 1500:
        simple = principle * (1 + rate * N)
        compound = principle * (1 + rate) ** N
        print "%s %s" % (simple, compound)
        principle += 1000
    rate += .05

Edit: fixed the code. xrange apparently doesn't take floats :(

Answer 2

You can't use xrange/range directly since they require integer arguments.

The way to do this is with a nice generator expression and a while loop, I think:

# if N is the number of years, say so in the variable name
numYears = 5
# start with 0.05, then 0.10, then 0.15 (the +1 is since xrange uses <, not <=)
# just increase the second xrange() argument to try more rates
rates = (0.05 * x for x in xrange(1, 3+1))
for rate in rates:
    # you're adding 1000 and then stopping at 1500... so this only executes once!
    principle = 1000
    while principle <= 1500:
        simple = principle * (1 + rate * numYears)
        # ** is the power operator in Python
        compound = principle * (1 + rate) ** numYears
        # Python conveniently enters spaces for you
        print simple, compound
        # now update the loop variable
        principle += 1000

Answer 3

It should be about this:

N=5
rates = [i/100.0 for i in xrange(5,16,5)]
for r in rates:
    for p in xrange(1000, 1501, 1000):
        s = p*(1+r*N)
        c = p*(1+r)**N
        print s, c

Answer 4

You can make it work with minimal changes to the pseudocode

N=5
for rate in range(5, 15+1, 5):    #+1 needed to include last term
    rate *= 0.01
    for principle in range(1000, 1500+1, 1000):
        simple = principle * (1 + rate * N)
        compound = principle * (1 + rate)** N
        print str(simple) + " " + str(compound)

Answer 5

Pretty similar to KillianDS's but uses a generator expression. Saves you a couple of kB of memory (not that it matters).

N = 5
for rate in (i / 100.0 for i in xrange(5, 15 + 1, 5)):
    for principle in xrange(1000, 1500 + 1, 1000):
        simple = principle * (1 + rate * N)
        compound = principle * (1 + rate) ** N
        print "%s %s" % (simple, compound)