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

Swan The Human
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Swan The Human
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 19,338 Points
Posted by Swan The Human
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Swan The Human
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 19,338 Points

Trying to make a function that returns a dictionary with the amount of times each word in a string is used.

im not sure exactly how to begin this or if im on the right track with what i have so far. if anyone can help me slightly with where to start or what i have right and wrong i would appreciate it

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('this challenge is difficult'):
    dict = {'this': 1, 'challenge': 1, 'is': 1, 'difficult': 1}
    return(**dict.lower)

1 Answer

mhjp
mhjp
20,372 Points
mhjp
mhjp
20,372 Points

You will need to iterate through the string, lowercasing and splitting on whitespace. Then add each item to the dict, first checking if it is already a dict key and incrementing the value if it is.

i.e.

def word_count(s):
    word_dict = {}
    for i in s.lower().split():
        if i in word_dict:
            #do something
        else:
            #do something else      
    return word_dict