Python Program to Count Words in Text File

In this article, we are going to see how to count words in Text Files using Python.

Example 1: Count String Words

First, we create a text file of which we want to count the number of words. Let this file be SampleFile.txt with the following contents:

File for demonstration:

Below is the implementation:

Python3

# creating variable to store the
# number of words
number_of_words = 0

# Opening our text file in read only
# mode using the open() function
with open(r'SampleFile.txt','r') as file:

    # Reading the content of the file
    # using the read() function and storing
    # them in a new variable
    data = file.read()

    # Splitting the data into separate lines
    # using the split() function
    lines = data.split()

    # Adding the length of the
    # lines in our number_of_words
    # variable
    number_of_words += len(lines)


# Printing total number of words
print(number_of_words)

Output:

7

Explanation:

• Creating a new variable to store the total number of words in the text file. And then open the text file in read-only mode using the open() function.
• Read the content of the file using the read() function and storing them in a new variable. And then split the data stored in the data variable into separate lines using the split() function and then storing them in a new variable. And add the length of the lines in our number_of_words variable.

Example 2: Count the number of words, not Integer

File for demonstration:

Below is the implementation:

Python3

# creating variable to store the
# number of words
number_of_words = 0

# Opening our text file in read only
# mode using the open() function
with open(r'SampleFile.txt','r') as file:

    # Reading the content of the file
    # using the read() function and storing
    # them in a new variable
    data = file.read()

    # Splitting the data into separate lines
    # using the split() function
    lines = data.split()

    # Iterating over every word in
    # lines
    for word in lines:

        # checking if the word is numeric or not
        if not word.isnumeric():

            # Adding the length of the
            # lines in our number_of_words
            # variable
            number_of_words += 1

# Printing total number of words
print(number_of_words)

Output:

11

Explanation: Create a new variable to store the total number of words in the text file and then open the text file in read-only mode using the open() function. Read the content of the file using the read() function and storing them in a new variable and then split the data stored in the data variable into separate lines using the split() function and then storing them in a new variable, Iterating over every word in lines using the for loop and check if the word is numeric or not using the isnumeric() function then add 1 in our number_of_words variable.