how to count characters in strings?

Question

```suggestinator.py
def suggest(productidea):
    if productidea < len(3)
    raise ValueError("The name is too short")
    return product_idea + "inator"
```

Jennifer Nordell · Accepted Answer

Hi there, @Julian Eysmont (https://teamtreehouse.com/julianeysmont)!  Counting the number of characters in a string is fairly straightforward. If you pass in the string to the len() function, it will return the number of characters.  For instance:
```py
name = "Julian"
print(len(name))
```
This will print out the number 6 because there are 6 characters in "Julian". I think what you're meaning to do is ask:
```py
if len(product_idea) < 3:
```
Hope this helps! :sparkles:

Julian Eysmont

Julian Eysmont

how to count characters in strings?

1 Answer

Jennifer Nordell

Jennifer Nordell