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1. Read File2. Write File3. Append to File4. Read CSV File5. Write CSV File6. JSON Read7. JSON Write8. File Copy9. File Rename10. Read Binary File11. Write Binary File12. Count Words in File13. Count Lines in File14. Count Characters in File15. Search Substring in File16. Iterate File Lines17. File Metadata18. File Compression19. File Decompression20. Delete File

Count Words in File in Python

Count the number of words in a text file.

BeginnerFile Handling ProgramsExample 12 of 20
count-words-in-file.py
1# Program to count words in a file
2

3filename = input("Enter filename: ")
4

5try:
6    with open(filename, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
7        text = f.read()
8    words = text.split()
9    print("Word count:", len(words))
10except FileNotFoundError:
11    print("File not found.")

Output

Enter filename: notes.txt
Word count: 42

What's going on

Splitting on whitespace with .split() gives a simple word count metric.

After this program

If the idea is still fuzzy, read Day 14: File Handling in the Python course. For a short check, try the Python quiz (300 questions). Stay with all 20 file handling programs, or see every topic on Python exercises.

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