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Python Python Collections (Retired) Dictionaries Word Count

Posted by Brian Hartley
Brian Hartley
3,115 Points

Wrong counts in challenge (code works locally)

I am consistently getting a 'Bummer" Didn't get the right counts for some of the words' error message. My code works as it should when I run it on my local machine (i.e. pass any string and it returns a dict with each word as a key, and their values as the number of times they appear in the string).

The problem seems to be in the challenge workspace, and not my code. Can anybody help? One example of my code is below:

def word_count(x):

    d = {}
    x = x.lower()

    for item in x:
        l = list(x.split())

    for word in l:
        if word not in d:
            d[word] = 1
        elif word in d:
            d[word] = x.count(word)

    return d

And another example of code that works locally, but not within the challenge workspace:

def word_count(x):

    d = {}
    x = x.lower()

    for item in x:
        l = list(x.split())

    for word in l:
        d[word] = x.count(word)

    return d

3 Answers

Chris Freeman
MOD
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,426 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,426 Points

There are two parts I would correct:

    for item in x:
        l = list(x.split())

Repeatedly assigns x.split() to l. It can be replaced with just the assignment. split() returns a list. 

    l = x.split()

The second issue is the use of x.count(word). For each word it is scanning the original string and returning the count. when a duplicate word is present, it will over count those words again effective ending up with the squared count value: 2 => 4; 3 => 9.

Increment the count can be:

d[word] += 1
Stephen Bone
Stephen Bone
12,359 Points
Stephen Bone
Stephen Bone
12,359 Points

Hi Brian

I think the issue is with the use of the count method as it seems count to every occurrence of the letter 'i' in the string. So for example if I change the test string to "I am that I am I'm in" (I know it's nonsensical) the result I receive from your first function is {'in': 1, "i'm": 1, 'that': 1, 'am': 2, 'i': 4}.

If you just swap that line out to d[word] += 1 that fixes it.

Hope it helps!

Stephen

Brian Hartley
Brian Hartley
3,115 Points
Brian Hartley
Brian Hartley
3,115 Points

Chris and Steven, thanks so much for taking the time to review my question. You are absolutely right, I was miscalculating the increment. I also moved the split() outside of the for loop. Everything worked as expected.

I still wonder why the original code worked on my local machine, but that I'll have to dive into some other time.