Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Python Python Collections (Retired) Dictionaries Word Count

Bummer! IndentationError: return mydict

What's wrong with my code? I don't see any error!. when i run it on my local machine?!

word_count.py
# E.g. word_count("I am that I am") gets back a dictionary like:
# {'i': 2, 'am': 2, 'that': 1}
# Lowercase the string to make it easier.
# Using .split() on the sentence will give you a list of words.
# In a for loop of that list, you'll have a word that you can
# check for inclusion in the dict (with "if word in dict"-style syntax).
# Or add it to the dict with something like word_dict[word] = 1.
mydict = {}
def word_count(mystring):
    listofwords = mystring.lower().split()
    for word in listofwords:
        if word in mydict:
            mydict[word] += mydict[word] # update existing entry
        else: 
            mydict[word] = 1 # add new entry

    return mydict

2 Answers

Chris Freeman
MOD
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,441 Points

There are two errors:

  • mixing TABs and SPACEs in indentation. The standard practice is to uses 4 spaces
  • the update existing entry should increment by 1. By adding the value to itself, you are doubling the value each loop.

Yes, I wrote those lines in Sublime and mixed used tabs, spaces. My bad.

Nick Osborne
Nick Osborne
4,612 Points

Hi, looks like the error is just in the update existing entry. The problem being that if mydict[word] is bigger than 1 already then it will add too many. So just add 1. Hope that makes sense.

mydict = {}
def word_count(mystring):
    listofwords = mystring.lower().split()
    for word in listofwords:
        if word in mydict:
            mydict[word] += 1 # update existing entry
        else: 
            mydict[word] = 1 # add new entry

    return mydict