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

Posted by Lerena Holloway
Lerena Holloway
9,855 Points

I'm stuck

Not exactly sure what's the issue here...it works just fine in my command line, but there must be one thing that's throwing it off.

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):
    new_dict = {}
    string = string.split(' ')
    string = string.strip()
    string = string.lower()
    for word in string:
        new_dict.update({word: string.count(word)})
    return new_dict

2 Answers

Philip Schultz
Philip Schultz
11,437 Points
Philip Schultz
Philip Schultz
11,437 Points

Hey Lerena, Remeber when you use the split method you're turning the string into a list. Also, you don't need to put quotations in the parenthesis of the split function.

This is how I did the challenge. 

def word_count(some_string):
    some_list = some_string.lower().split()
    some_dict = {}

    for word in some_list:
        some_dict[word] = some_list.count(word)
    return some_dict

Notice how I used lower() and split() on the same line. If you do it this way remember that you have to use lower() first then the split(). You don't need to strip anything.

Then I created an empty dict (you did too good job).

then I looped through our new list and assigned it to a value in the dict. Let me know if you have questions and I'll try to answer the best I can.

Lerena Holloway
Lerena Holloway
9,855 Points

Wow, thanks so much! I never knew that I had to put the lower method before the split method like that. That's all I needed to change and it ran. Thanks!!

Dave StSomeWhere
Dave StSomeWhere
19,870 Points
Dave StSomeWhere
Dave StSomeWhere
19,870 Points

If it runs in your command, what do you get if you run (adding extra spaces between words):

print(word_count("I   do not   like  it sam    I am"))
  1. The split() needs to be fixed (no value is needed), it can also be combined with lower() - you don't need separate lines
  2. The strip() is unnecessary an can be removed
Lerena Holloway
Lerena Holloway
9,855 Points

Thanks so much! I was able to rearrange the methods and drop the strip and it worked.