Re: Number of Words in a String
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg102536] Re: Number of Words in a String
- From: pfalloon <pfalloon at gmail.com>
- Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:37:20 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <h5r8b5$l4q$1@smc.vnet.net>
On Aug 11, 5:58 pm, Gregory Lypny <gregory.ly... at videotron.ca> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> Is this the simplest way to find the number of words in a string?
> Seems a little complicated, and I can't seem to turn it into a
> function because when I replace the string with the argument
> placeholder myString_ I get an error message saying that a string is
> expected in that spot.
>
> Length[ReadList[StringToStream["The cat in the hat."], Word]]
>
> Returns 5.
>
> Gregory
were you using Set ( a = b) rather than SetDelayed (a := b) in your
function definition? The following works for me:
In[12]:= f[str_] := Length[ReadList[StringToStream[str], Word]]
f["hey there"]
Out[13]= 2
However, it's much quicker to use the StringSplit function:
In[14]:= Length@StringSplit["hey there"]
Out[14]= 2
In[19]:= Do[f["hey there"],{5000}] // AbsoluteTiming
Out[19]= {5.1405921,Null}
In[21]:= Do[Length@StringSplit["hey there"],{5000}] // AbsoluteTiming
Out[21]= {0.0156249,Null}
Cheers,
Peter.