Python: Count most and least common characters in a given string

Last update on July 05 2025 07:25:01 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

21. Count the Most and Least Common Characters in a String

Write a Python program to count the most and least common characters in a given string.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

# Import the Counter class from the collections module
from collections import Counter 

# Define a function 'max_least_char' that finds the most and least common characters in a string
def max_least_char(str1):
    # Create a Counter object 'temp' to count the occurrences of characters in 'str1'
    temp = Counter(str1) 
    
    # Find the character with the maximum count using 'max' and the character with the minimum count using 'min'
    max_char = max(temp, key=temp.get)
    min_char = min(temp, key=temp.get)
    
    # Return a tuple containing the most and least common characters
    return (max_char, min_char)

# Create a string 'str1'
str1 = "hello world"

# Print a message to indicate the display of the original string
print("Original string: ")
print(str1)

# Call the 'max_least_char' function with 'str1' and store the result in 'result'
result = max_least_char(str1)

# Print a message to indicate the display of the most common character in the string
print("\nMost common character of the said string:", result[0])

# Print a message to indicate the display of the least common character in the string
print("Least common character of the said string:", result[1]) 

Sample Output:

Original string: 
hello world

Most common character of the said string: l
Least common character of the said string: h

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

• Write a Python program to count character frequencies in a string and print both the most common and least common characters using collections.Counter.
• Write a Python program to use a dictionary to tally character counts and then determine which character appears most and which least.
• Write a Python program to iterate over a string and compare character frequencies to identify the maximum and minimum occurring characters.
• Write a Python program to implement a function that returns the most and least common characters from a given string.

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