How to Use count () Function in Python

How to Use count () Function in Python

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Vikram
Vikram Singh
Assistant Manager - Content
Updated on Oct 30, 2023 12:38 IST

The count function is a built-in function in python that returns the number of times a given value occurs in a string or list. In this article, we will learn more about how to use the count function with list and string in python.

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The count () function in Python is a handy way to find out how many times something appears in a list or a string. It’s like quickly counting how many of a certain item you have in a list, which is really useful for keeping track of things easily.

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What is the count function in Python?

The count function is a built-in python function that returns the number of times a given value occurs in a string or list. This function can also be used to count the number of elements in the array. It can also find the white spaces in a given string.

There are two different types of count() methods in Python:

  • string count () method
  • list count () method

Python list count () method:

The list count() method returns the number of times an object appears in a list. It takes a single argument as an input that iterates through the list and counts the number of instances that appear in that specified list.

Syntax

 
list.count(object)
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Parameter
object: the element to be counted.

Examples

Example -1:

 
#use count function to find the number of times 1729
number = [1191, 1192, 1564, 1729, 1869, 1889, 1729, 1911, 1947, 1729]
print('number of times 1729 is repeated in the list is:', number.count(1729))
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Output

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Example -2:

 
#use count function to count the number of times i in the list
name = ['I', 'N', 'F', 'O', 'E', 'D', 'G', 'E']
print ('number of times I is repeated in the list is:', name.count('I'))
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Output

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Example – 3:

 
#count list element ['a','e','i','o','u'] inside a list
alphabet = [1, 2, 3, ['a','e','i','o','u'], (7, 8), ['a','e','i','o','u'], 10, 11, ('r', 'v') ]
print ('number of times list is repeated in the list is:', alphabet.count(['a','e','i','o','u']))
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Python string count () method:

The string count() function is used to count the frequency of the character or a substring in a string.

  • It returns the number of occurrences of substring/character in the string.
  • It is a case-sensitive function, i.e., P and p are treated differently (check the below example -1). 

Syntax

 
string.count(substring, start = …, end = …)
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Parameter

  • Substring 
    • It is the character or the substring you want to search in the string
  • Start 
    • It is the position to start the search.
    • It is optional and inclusive, i.e., the substring at this position is also included in the count.
      • But, if we did not assign any value to this, it will be considered the 0th position by default.
  • End
    • It is the position to end the search.
    • It is optional and exclusive, i.e., the substring or the character at this position is excluded from the count.
      • But, if any value is not assigned, it will consider the last index of the string by default.

Examples

Example -1:

 
#using count function count the number of time p and P appears in Philippines
country = 'Philippines'
print('count of P in Philippines is:', country.count('P'))
print('count of p in Philippines is:', country.count('p'))
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Output

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Example – 2:

 
#use both start and end value in the count function
name = 'mahatma gandhi'
name.count('a', 2, 10)
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About the Author
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Vikram Singh
Assistant Manager - Content

Vikram has a Postgraduate degree in Applied Mathematics, with a keen interest in Data Science and Machine Learning. He has experience of 2+ years in content creation in Mathematics, Statistics, Data Science, and Mac... Read Full Bio