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

Posted by Sadie K
Sadie K
3,745 Points

Challenge won't complete but my code works on Python

The challenge is to take a string, split it and return a dictionary with the keys of the words of the string and the values of how many times the words were in that string. My code returns a dictionary just like that in the challenge but it doesn't verify as correct. What am I doing wrong?

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(string):
    # Vending MachineSSS
    string = string.lower()
    words = string.split(' ')
    dictionary = dict()
    for word in words:
        try:
            dictionary[word] += 1
        except KeyError:
            dictionary[word] = 1
    return dictionary

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,732 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,732 Points

You're really close there! The "Bummer" message you get contains a hint: "Be sure you're lowercasing the string and splitting on all whitespace!"

To split on "all whitespace", the argument to the "split" function should be left empty. Providing a literal space causes it to split at each individual space character.

Sadie K
Sadie K
3,745 Points

Thank you! I didn't realize exactly what the term 'all whitespace' meant but now I do.

Jason Sikes
Jason Sikes
Courses Plus Student 10,202 Points

Thank you, Steven Parker, for the info on the split(). That helped.