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Shahrouz Nikseresht
Shahrouz Nikseresht

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Day 39: Python Word Counter, Count Words in Text with Whitespace Handling

#challenge #python #beginners #programming

Welcome to Day 39 of the #80DaysOfChallenges journey! This beginner challenge focuses on counting words in a string, trimming extra spaces and splitting cleanly, a fundamental task for text processing that builds skills in string methods like strip and split. It's ideal for starters exploring data cleanup or basic analysis, and the optional extension adds character and sentence counts for more depth. If you're practicing string ops or list lengths, this "Python word counter" shows functions that are straightforward yet effective for real tasks like content stats.

💡 Key Takeaways from Day 39: Word Counting Functions

This exercise includes a core function for word count and an extended one for extras like chars without spaces and sentences via punctuation. It's a clean demo of text prep: strip edges, split on spaces, len for count. We'll cover: basic function with trim and split, extended with replace and sum, and example showing outputs.

1. Basic Counter: Trim and Split Logic

The word_counter function takes text, cleans, splits, returns count:

def word_counter(text: str) -> int:
    """
    Count the number of words in the given text.
    """
    # Remove leading and trailing whitespaces
    clean_text = text.strip()

    # Split the text by spaces (handles multiple spaces between words)
    words = clean_text.split()

    # Return the number of words
    return len(words)
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strip() removes outer spaces, split() handles multiples as one, avoiding empty entries. Len gives word count. Simple, handles " a b " as 2.

2. Extended Counter: Add Chars and Sentences

The word_counter_extended adds more metrics:

def word_counter_extended(text: str) -> tuple:
    """
    Count words, characters (without spaces), and sentences in the text.
    Returns a tuple: (words_count, chars_count, sentences_count)
    """
    clean_text = text.strip()
    words = clean_text.split()
    words_count = len(words)

    # Count characters excluding spaces
    chars_count = len(clean_text.replace(" ", ""))

    # Count sentences by looking for ., !, ?
    sentences_count = sum(clean_text.count(p) for p in ".!?")
    return words_count, chars_count, sentences_count
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Reuses trim/split for words. replace(" ", "") removes spaces for char count. Sum counts ending punctuation for sentences. Returns tuple for multi-output.

3. Example Usage: Test with Sample

Run under main:

sample_text = "  Python   is    awesome!  "
print(sample_text)
print("Words:", word_counter(sample_text))
print("Extended:", word_counter_extended(sample_text))
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For sample, words: 3, extended: (3, 15, 1). Shows handling spaces, punctuation.

🎯 Summary and Reflections

This word counter teaches text basics, from cleaning to counting. It reminded me:

  • Whitespace tricks: Strip/split manage messiness.
  • Multi-metrics: Extend for chars/sentences easily.
  • Tuple returns: Pack multiple values neatly.

Great for logs or essays. For more, handle hyphens or quotes.

Advanced Alternatives: Use regex for words: len(re.findall(r'\w+', text)), or Counter for freq. Your text tip? Comment!

🚀 Next Steps and Resources

Day 39 honed string skills, setting for text challenges. In #80DaysOfChallenges? Added freq? Share!

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