Given a text file fname, the task is to count the total number of characters, words, spaces, and lines in the file.
Python – Get number of characters, words, spaces and lines in a file
As we know, Python provides multiple in-built features and modules for handling files. Let’s discuss different ways to calculate the total number of characters, words, spaces, and lines in a file using Python.
Get the number of characters, words, spaces, and lines in a file
Get the number of characters, words, spaces, and lines in a file
Below are the methods that we will cover in this article:
- The naive approach of getting the number of characters, words, spaces, and lines in a file.
- Using some built-in functions and OS module functions
Count the Number of Lines, Words, and Characters using the Native Method
In this approach, the idea is to solve the task by developing our own logic. Without using any built-in function of Python, the total number of characters, words, spaces and lines of the file will be calculated. Below is the implementation of the above approach.
Python3
# Function to count number of characters, words, spaces and lines in a filedef counter(fname): # variable to store total word count num_words = 0 # variable to store total line count num_lines = 0 # variable to store total character count num_charc = 0 # variable to store total space count num_spaces = 0 # opening file using with() method # so that file gets closed # after completion of work with open(fname, 'r') as f: # loop to iterate file # line by line for line in f: # incrementing value of num_lines with each # iteration of loop to store total line count num_lines += 1 # declaring a variable word and assigning its value as Y # because every file is supposed to start with a word or a character word = 'Y' # loop to iterate every # line letter by letter for letter in line: # condition to check that the encountered character # is not white space and a word if (letter != ' ' and word == 'Y'): # incrementing the word # count by 1 num_words += 1 # assigning value N to variable word because until # space will not encounter a word can not be completed word = 'N' # condition to check that the encountered character is a white space elif (letter == ' '): # incrementing the space # count by 1 num_spaces += 1 # assigning value Y to variable word because after # white space a word is supposed to occur word = 'Y' # loop to iterate every character for i in letter: # condition to check white space if(i !=" " and i !="\n"): # incrementing character # count by 1 num_charc += 1 # printing total word count print("Number of words in text file: ", num_words) # printing total line count print("Number of lines in text file: ", num_lines) # printing total character count print('Number of characters in text file: ', num_charc) # printing total space count print('Number of spaces in text file: ', num_spaces) # Driver Code:if __name__ == '__main__': fname = 'File1.txt' try: counter(fname) except: print('File not found') |
Output:
Number of words in text file: 25
Number of lines in text file: 4
Number of characters in text file: 91
Number of spaces in text file: 21
Time complexity: O(n) where n is the number of characters in the file.
Space complexity: O(1) as only a few variables are used to store the count and no additional data structures are used.
Find the number of characters in a file using Python
In this approach, the idea is to use the os.linesep() method of OS module to separate the lines on the current platform. When the interpreter’s scanner encounter os.linesep it replaces it with \n character. After that strip() and split() functions will be used to carry out the task. Get more ideas about strip() and split() functions. Below is the implementation of the above approach.
Python3
import os# Function to count number# of characters, words, spaces# and lines in a filedef counter(fname): # variable to store total word count num_words = 0 # variable to store total line count num_lines = 0 # variable to store total character count num_charc = 0 # variable to store total space count num_spaces = 0 # opening file using with() method # so that file gets closed # after completion of work with open(fname, 'r') as f: # loop to iterate file # line by line for line in f: # separating a line from \n character # and storing again in line line = line.strip(os.linesep) # splitting the line wordslist = line.split() # incrementing value of num_lines num_lines = num_lines + 1 # incrementing value of num_word num_words = num_words + len(wordslist) # incrementing value of num_char num_charc = num_charc + sum(1 for c in line if c not in (os.linesep, ' ')) # incrementing value of num_space num_spaces = num_spaces + sum(1 for s in line if s in (os.linesep, ' ')) # printing total word count print("Number of words in text file: ", num_words) # printing total line count print("Number of lines in text file: ", num_lines) # printing total character count print("Number of characters in text file: ", num_charc) # printing total space count print("Number of spaces in text file: ", num_spaces)# Driver Code:if __name__ == '__main__': fname = 'File1.txt' try: counter(fname) except: print('File not found') |
Output:
Number of words in text file: 25
Number of lines in text file: 4
Number of characters in text file: 91
Number of spaces in text file: 21
Time complexity: O(n), where n is the number of characters in the file. The code reads the file line by line and performs operations on each line, so the time complexity grows linearly with the size of the file.
Space complexity: O(1), as the code only uses a constant amount of memory to store the count variables, regardless of the size of the file.
