Get Word Count in a Sentence

Convert Minutes into Seconds

Learn how to convert minutes into seconds in Python using arithmetic multiplication and basic unit conversions.

1. The Challenge: Counting Words

Create a function count_words(txt) that takes a string of text and returns the total word count.

2. Why It Matters

Text analysis, document search indexing, and social media post validation rely on calculating word counts.

3. The Python Solution

Use the string .split() method to split text by spaces into a list of words, then measure length with len():

def count_words(txt):
    words = txt.split()
    return len(words)

# Testing our function
print(count_words("Just an example here")) # Output: 4
print(count_words("Is this easy?"))        # Output: 3
print(count_words("Hello World"))          # Output: 2

4. How .split() Handles Whitespace

Calling .split() without arguments automatically handles multiple consecutive spaces, tabs, and newlines cleanly without creating empty string items.

5. Common Mistakes

• Passing Explicit Space Parameter txt.split(" "): Calling txt.split(" ") fails when multiple spaces exist between words! Always call txt.split() without arguments for general word tokenization.

6. Next Steps

Use txt.split() and len() for word counts. Next, let's find the minimum and maximum numbers in a list!