Python Program to Count the Number of Words in a Text File

This is a Python Program to count the number of words in a text file.

Problem Description

The program takes the file name from the user and counts number of words in that file.

Problem Solution

1. Take the file name from the user.
2. Read each line from the file and split the line to form a list of words.
3. Find the length of items in the list and print it.
4. Exit.

Program/Source Code

Here is source code of the Python Program to count the number of words in a text file. The program output is also shown below.

fname = input("Enter file name: ")
 
num_words = 0
 
with open(fname, 'r') as f:
    for line in f:
        words = line.split()
        num_words += len(words)
print("Number of words:")
print(num_words)
Program Explanation

1. User must enter a file name.
2. The file is opened using the open() function in the read mode.
3. A for loop is used to read through each line in the file.
4. Each line is split into a list of words using split().
5. The number of words in each line is counted using len() and the count variable is incremented.
6. The number of words in the file is printed.

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Runtime Test Cases
 
Case 1:
Contents of file: 
Hello world
 
Output: 
Enter file name: data1.txt
Number of words:
2
 
Case 2:
Contents of file: 
This programming language is
Python
 
Output: 
Enter file name: data2.txt
Number of words:
5

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Manish Bhojasia, a technology veteran with 20+ years @ Cisco & Wipro, is Founder and CTO at Sanfoundry. He lives in Bangalore, and focuses on development of Linux Kernel, SAN Technologies, Advanced C, Data Structures & Alogrithms. Stay connected with him at LinkedIn.

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