Python String count()

In this tutorial, we will learn about the Python String count() method with the help of examples.

The count() method returns the number of occurrences of a substring in the given string.

Example

message = 'python is popular programming language'

# number of occurrence of 'p'
print('Number of occurrence of p:', message.count('p'))

# Output: Number of occurrence of p: 4

1. Syntax of String count

The syntax of count() method is:

string.count(substring, start=..., end=...)

2. count() Parameters

count() method only requires a single parameter for execution. However, it also has two optional parameters:

• substring – string whose count is to be found.
• start (Optional) – starting index within the string where search starts.
• end (Optional) – ending index within the string where search ends.

Note: Index in Python starts from 0, not 1.

3. count() Return Value

count() method returns the number of occurrences of the substring in the given string.

4. Example 1: Count number of occurrences of a given substring

# define string
string = "Python is awesome, isn't it?"
substring = "is"

count = string.count(substring)

# print count
print("The count is:", count)

Output

The count is: 2

5. Example 2: Count number of occurrences of a given substring using start and end

# define string
string = "Python is awesome, isn't it?"
substring = "i"

# count after first 'i' and before the last 'i'
count = string.count(substring, 8, 25)

# print count
print("The count is:", count)

Output

The count is: 1

Here, the counting starts after the first i has been encountered, i.e. 7th index position.

And, it ends before the last i, i.e. 25th index position.