count() to get number of matching items

my_list=['a','b','c','b','a','d']
print("Number of times a appears : ", my_list.count('a'))
print("Number of times b appears : ", my_list.count('b'))
print("Number of times c appears : ", my_list.count('c'))

Number of times a appears :  2
Number of times b appears :  2
Number of times c appears :  1

Example: Counting Items That Don’t Exist

my_list = ['x', 'y', 'z']
print("Count of 'a':", my_list.count('a'))  # should print 0, because 'a' is not in list

• This shows that `count()` returns 0 for missing elements, not an error.

Example: Custom Objects with __eq__

class Person:
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name
    def __eq__(self, other):
        return isinstance(other, Person) and self.name == other.name

p1 = Person("Alice")
p2 = Person("Bob")
p3 = Person("Alice")
lst = [p1, p2, p3]

print("Count of Person('Alice'):", lst.count(Person("Alice")))  # 2

• Demonstrates how equality definition in a class affects counting.

Example: Count Multiple Targets Efficiently

from collections import Counter

my_list = ['a', 'b', 'b', 'c', 'a', 'd', 'b']
cnt = Counter(my_list)
print("Count of 'a':", cnt['a'])
print("Count of 'b':", cnt['b'])
print("Top two frequent items:", cnt.most_common(2))

• Using `collections.Counter` avoids scanning list multiple times for different items.

Example: Real‑World Use Case (Text Processing)

text = "apple orange apple banana apple fruit"
words = text.split()
print("Number of 'apple':", words.count('apple'))

• Useful for simple word frequency in small texts, e.g. for surveys or parsing logs.

Subhendu Mohapatra

Author & Instructor at plus2net

I write and maintain practical tutorials on Python, PHP, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, jQuery, and web development at plus2net. The tutorials focus on clear explanations, working examples, and code that readers can test and adapt while learning.

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