Python | Ways to count number of substring in string

Given a string and a substring, write a Python program to find how many numbers of substrings are there in the string (including overlapping cases). Let’s discuss a few methods below.

Method #1: Using re.findall() Method

Python3

# Python code to demonstrate
# to count total number
# of substring in string

import re
# Initialising string
ini_str = "ababababa"
sub_str = 'aba'

# Count count of substrings using re.findall
res = len(re.findall('(?= aba)', ini_str))

# Printing result
print("Number of substrings", res)

Method #2: Using re.finditer() Method

Python3

# Python code to demonstrate
# to count total number
# of substring in string

import re
# Initialising string
ini_str = "ababababa"
sub_str = 'aba'

# Count count of substrings using re.finditer
res = sum(1 for _ in re.finditer('(?= aba)', ini_str))

# Printing result
print("Number of substrings", res)

Method #3: Using startswith()

Python3

# Python code to demonstrate
# to count total number
# of substring in string

# Initialising string
ini_str = "ababababa"
sub_str = 'aba'

# Count count of substrings using startswith
res = sum(1 for i in range(len(ini_str))
         if ini_str.startswith("aba", i))

# Printing result
print("Number of substrings", res)

Output:

Number of substrings 4

Method #4: Using count() Method

Python3

# Python code to demonstrate
# to count total number
# of substring in string

# Initialising string
ini_str = "ababababa"
sub_str = 'aba'
# Count count of substrings using count
def Countofoccurrences(ini_str,sub_str):

    # Initialize count and start to 0
    count = 0
    start = 0

    # Search through the string till
    # we reach the end of it
    while start < len(ini_str):

        # Check if a substring is present from
        # 'start' position till the end
        pos = ini_str.find(sub_str, start)

        if pos != -1:
            # If a substring is present, move 'start' to
            # the next position from start of the substring
            start = pos + 1

            # Increment the count
            count += 1
        else:
            # If no further substring is present
            break
    # return the value of count
    return count
# Printing result
print("Number of substrings", Countofoccurrences(ini_str,sub_str))

Output

Number of substrings 4