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Python Python Collections (2016, retired 2019) Dictionaries Word Count

I can't tell how my answer is incorrect

What's wrong here?

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.

def word_count(str) :
    str = str.lower().strip()
    words = str.split(" ")
    word_count = {word: 0 for word in words}
    for word in words:
        word_count[word] += 1
    return word_count

2 Answers

Stuart Wright
Stuart Wright
41,119 Points

The problem is with this line:

    words = str.split(" ")

" " is one of several different types of whitespace characters. Others exist, such as tabs and newline characters. The challenge wants the function to split on all of these. Thankfully, this is quite simple, as the method's default behaviour when you pass no argument is to split on all whitespace:

    words = str.split()

As an aside, using str as a variable name is not good practise, as it is a built-in type in Python, although you do not need to make this change to pass the challenge.

Hey Thanks for that Stuart, it's always something simple! Yeah I would always use descriptive names but the treehouse problems I try to solve quickly haha. Thanks again!