How to Easily Count Character Occurrences in Python String

In this video, we’ll reveal how to use Python to count the occurrences of each character in a string. Through a clear and concise example code, you’ll learn how to utilize dictionary objects to store and update character counts. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced programmer, this method will help you handle string operations more efficiently. Watch now to master this practical technique!

1. Example Demo Video.

2. Python Source Code.

# Using a dictionary to count occurrences of each character in a string
def count_characters(s):
    # Initialize an empty dictionary to store character counts
    char_count = {}
    
    for char in s:
        # Increment the count for the character in the dictionary, because the in operator return True if it exist.
        if char in char_count:
            char_count[char] += 1
        # because the character is not exist in the dictionary, then set it to 1.    
        else:
            char_count[char] = 1
    
    return char_count


if __name__ == "__main__":
    
    # The function is useful for frequency analysis in cryptography
    print(count_characters("hello world"))  # Output: {'h': 1, 'e': 1, 'l': 3, 'o': 2, ' ': 1, 'w': 1, 'r': 1, 'd': 1}