Fairly new to Python, took me much longer than it should have: (Python 2.7) import sys

listOfArrays = [] f = open('testing3.txt', 'r') fList = f.readlines() for line in fList: listOfArrays.append(line)

def checkForSquare(x, y, maxL, maxH, list): localC = 0
for mx in range (x + 1, maxL): if list[y][mx] == ' ': break elif list[y][mx] == '+':

        for my in range (y + 1, maxH):
            if len(list[my]) >= mx:
                if list[my][mx] == ' ':
                    break
                elif list[my][mx] == '+':
                    for mmx in range(mx - 1, x - 1, -1):
                        if len(list[my]) >= mmx:
                            if list[my][mmx] == ' ':
                                break
                            elif list[my][mmx] == '+':
                                for mmy in range(my - 1, y - 1, -1):
                                    if list[mmy][mmx] == ' ':
                                        break
                                    elif list[mmy][mmx] == '+':
                                        if mmy == y and mmx == x:
                                            localC = localC + 1
return localC

def main(): counter = 0 for row in range(len(listOfArrays)): thisList = listOfArrays[row] for col in range(len(thisList)): charC = thisList[col] if charC == '+': counter = counter + checkForSquare(col, row, len(thisList), len(listOfArrays), listOfArrays)

print counter

if name == "main": main()