How to Use the Python count() Method

09/16/2021

Contents

In this article, you will learn how to use the Python count() method.

Python count() Method

The Python count() method is a built-in function that allows you to count the occurrences of a specific element within an iterable. The iterable can be a list, tuple, set, or string. Here’s how to use the count() method in Python:

Syntax
iterable.count(element)
Example
Counting elements in a list
fruits = ["apple", "banana", "apple", "cherry", "apple"]
count_apple = fruits.count("apple")
print(count_apple)   # Output: 3

In the example above, we first created a list of fruits that contains three occurrences of the string “apple”. We then used the count() method to count the number of occurrences of “apple” in the list.

Counting characters in a string
string = "Hello, World!"
count_l = string.count("l")
print(count_l)   # Output: 3

In this example, we created a string that contains three occurrences of the letter “l”. We then used the count() method to count the number of occurrences of “l” in the string.

Counting elements in a tuple
numbers = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5)
count_five = numbers.count(5)
print(count_five)   # Output: 3

In this example, we created a tuple that contains three occurrences of the number 5. We then used the count() method to count the number of occurrences of 5 in the tuple.

Counting elements in a set
my_set = {1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4}
count_four = my_set.count(4)
print(count_four)   # Output: AttributeError: 'set' object has no attribute 'count'

In this example, we created a set that contains three occurrences of the number 4. We then used the count() method to count the number of occurrences of 4 in the set. However, the count() method is not available for sets. You can convert the set into a list or tuple and then use the count() method as shown in the previous examples.