Python Program to Count of Words with specific letter

In this article, we will learn how to count words containing a specific letter in a string using Python. We'll explore four different approaches to solve this problem efficiently.

Problem Statement

Given an input string and a character, we need to count how many words contain that specific character.

Example

input_string = 'hello tutorialspoint python codes'
input_char = "p"
# Expected output: 2 (words: tutorialspoint, python)

Method 1: Using List Comprehension with split()

List comprehension provides a concise way to filter words containing the target character ?

# Input string and character
input_string = 'hello tutorialspoint python codes'
input_char = "p"

print("Input String:", input_string)
print("Target Character:", input_char)

# Count words containing the character using list comprehension
words_count = len([word for word in input_string.split() if input_char in word])

print(f"Count of words containing '{input_char}': {words_count}")

Input String: hello tutorialspoint python codes
Target Character: p
Count of words containing 'p': 2

Method 2: Using split() and find() Functions

The find() method returns the index of the first occurrence or -1 if not found ?

input_string = 'hello tutorialspoint python codes'
input_char = "p"

print("Input String:", input_string)

words_count = 0
words_list = input_string.split()

# Check each word using find() method
for word in words_list:
    if word.find(input_char) != -1:
        words_count += 1

print(f"Count of words containing '{input_char}': {words_count}")

Input String: hello tutorialspoint python codes
Count of words containing 'p': 2

Method 3: Using replace() and Length Comparison

This method removes the target character and compares string lengths ?

input_string = 'hello tutorialspoint python codes'
input_char = "p"

print("Input String:", input_string)

words_count = 0
words_list = input_string.split()

# Check by removing the character and comparing lengths
for word in words_list:
    word_without_char = word.replace(input_char, "")
    if len(word_without_char) < len(word):
        words_count += 1

print(f"Count of words containing '{input_char}': {words_count}")

Input String: hello tutorialspoint python codes
Count of words containing 'p': 2

Method 4: Using Counter() Function

The Counter class creates a frequency dictionary of characters in each word ?

from collections import Counter

input_string = 'hello tutorialspoint python codes'
input_char = "p"

print("Input String:", input_string)

words_count = 0
words_list = input_string.split()

# Use Counter to get character frequencies
for word in words_list:
    char_frequency = Counter(word)
    if input_char in char_frequency:
        words_count += 1

print(f"Count of words containing '{input_char}': {words_count}")

Input String: hello tutorialspoint python codes
Count of words containing 'p': 2

Comparison of Methods

Conclusion

List comprehension offers the most readable and efficient solution for counting words containing a specific character. The find() method is also a good alternative when you need more control over the search process.