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 (2016, retired 2019) Dictionaries Word Count

Posted by Mary McCarthy
Mary McCarthy
1,805 Points

Help with converting string into dictionary word_count function

I was able to get this to work perfectly in workspaces but it is telling me I'm not correct. Any suggestions?

wordcount.py 
# E.g. word_count("I do not like it Sam I Am") gets back a dictionary like:
# {'i': 2, 'do': 1, 'it': 1, 'sam': 1, 'like': 1, 'not': 1, 'am': 1}
# Lowercase the string to make it easier.

from collections import Counter

def word_count(words):
    words = words.lower()
    word_list = []
    word_list = words.split(" ")
    word_dict = Counter(word_list)
    return word_dict
James Reinhold
James Reinhold
12,361 Points 
def word_count(string):
    string = string.lower()
    word_dict = {}
    word_list = string.split()
    for sel_word in word_list:
        count = 0
        for word in word_list:
            if sel_word == word:
                count +=1
        word_dict[sel_word] = count
    return word_dict

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,236 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,236 Points

You're very close! Did you see the hint in the error message? "Bummer! Hmm, didn't get the expected output. Be sure you're lowercasing the string and splitting on all whitespace!".

To split on "all whitespace", the argument to "split" should be left empty. Supplying a space causes it to split only on spaces.