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Start your free trialDhruv Ghulati
1,582 PointsUnsure of why I'm not getting the right count of words?
Hi - not sure about how to progress in this part - can you add items to dict usingg a counter e.g. dict[word]+=1?
Help appreciated!
# 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.
def word_count(string):
dict={}
string=string.lower()
words=string.split()
for word in words:
dict[word]=0
if word in words:
dict[word]+=1
return dict
6 Answers
William Li
Courses Plus Student 26,868 PointsDhruv, you're on the right track, I made some correction to you code, with extensive comment to help you understand.
def word_count(string):
my_dict = {} # don't use dict as variable name, becuase dict is a built-in function in Python
word_list = string.lower().split()
for i in word_list:
if i in my_dict: # if i key is already in the my_dict
my_dict[i] += 1 # add 1 to the my_dict[i] lookup
else: # very important, else, the i in not in my_dict yet
my_dict[i] = 1 # add i to the my_dict
return my_dict
Mike Tribe
4,114 Pointsdef word_count(s):
L1 = s.lower().split()
freq_dict = {}
for k in L1:
if k not in freq_dict:
freq_dict[k] = 1
else:
freq_dict[k] += 1
return(freq_dict)
Kenneth Love
Treehouse Guest Teacherreturn
isn't a function so it doesn't need the parentheses (Python will ignore them, though).
William Li
Courses Plus Student 26,868 Pointsbecause you have this line in your for loop
dict[word]=0
which always set the lookup value to 0, whether or not they are in the dictionary already.
Kenneth Love
Treehouse Guest TeacherTo answer your other question, yes, you can increment a value of a key with dict[key] += 1
.
Dhruv Ghulati
1,582 PointsThanks William - makes total sense. I took that part out but still something is wrong with my code.
Any pointers? Sorry I am asking so many questions, it's the way I'm learning best:
def word_count(string):
dict={}
word_list=(string.lower()).split()
for i in word_list:
if i in word_list:
dict[i]+=1
return dict
Dhruv Ghulati
1,582 PointsVery helpful. 2 things learnt here - you are right, I need to add the keys to the dict via my_dict[i]=1, otherwisse nothing happens, and also I learn now not to use dict={} as an empty variable name. Thanks a lot!!
Kenneth Love
Treehouse Guest TeacherUsing dict
or list
or whatever as a variable isn't the end of the world. But, if you ever need to go back to the class for something, you'll have issues. It's a practice that's better to not fall into.