Python: Count the number of each character of a given text of a text file

Last update on May 24 2025 10:49:32 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Character Frequency in File

Write a Python program to count the number of each character in a text file.

Inputs:
abc.txt -
German Unity Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Day of German Unity (German: Tag der DeutschenEinheit) is the national day of Germany, celebrated on 3 October as a public holiday. It commemorates the anniversary of German reunification in 1990, when the goal of a united Germany that originated in the middle of the 19th century, was fulfilled again. Therefore, the name addresses neither the re-union nor the union, but the unity of Germany. The Day of German Unity on 3 October has been the German national holiday since 1990, when the reunification was formally completed.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

# Import necessary modules.
import collections  # Import the 'collections' module for Counter.
import pprint  # Import 'pprint' for pretty printing.

# Get the file name as input from the user.
file_input = input('File Name: ')

# Open the file in read mode using a 'with' statement to ensure proper handling of resources.
with open(file_input, 'r') as info:
    # Read the contents of the file and count the occurrences of each uppercase character.
    count = collections.Counter(info.read().upper())
    # Use 'pprint' to format the count output for better readability.
    value = pprint.pformat(count)

# Print the formatted count of characters in the file.
print(value)

Sample Output:

File Name:  abc.txt
Counter({' ': 93,
         'E': 64,
         'N': 45,
         'A': 42,
         'T': 40,
         'I': 36,
         'O': 31,
         'R': 29,
         'H': 25,
         'D': 19,
         'M': 17,
         'Y': 17,
         'L': 15,
         'F': 15,
         'U': 14,
         'C': 13,
         'G': 13,
         'S': 12,
         ',': 7,
         'B': 6,
         'W': 5,
         '9': 5,
         '.': 4,
         'P': 4,
         '1': 3,
         '\n': 2,
         '0': 2,
         '3': 2,
         ':': 1,
         '-': 1,
         'K': 1,
         '(': 1,
         ')': 1,
         'V': 1})

Explanation:

The above code takes a filename as input from the user. It reads the file content, converts it to uppercase, and then counts the occurrences of each uppercase character. The results are pretty-printed using the 'pprint' module in Python's standard library.

Flowchart:

Flowchart: Python - Count the number of each character of a text file

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a Python program to count the frequency of each alphabet character in a file, ignoring case.
Write a Python program to count character frequencies in a file while excluding all whitespace characters.
Write a Python program to identify and display the top 5 most frequent characters found in a text file.
Write a Python program to create a histogram showing the frequency of each character from a given file.

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