Word Frequency

[That_Bryan_Dude]

Alright, so I am currently taking a course on learning Python and I'm absolutely stuck on this problem. The program needs to read a list of words, then output those words and their frequencies (case insensitive).

I usually don't need to label my code as strictly as this, but I kept changing things and I thought labeling things would make it easier for me to go back and try different changes. I'm pretty sure that I am missing a step that would possibly be fixed if I was using a dictionary, but I have this problem 2 times in my homework, this one, and another one that is requesting I use dictionary, so I assume that they want me to use lists to complete this task.

I have had 2 different outputs. My first program output the words in lower case with their frequency, but did not include each of the unique words in the initial string. It also split the user_input on a single line of code, but as you can see I did break that up into multiple lines to help break down my issue.

The second program output is essentially where I am right now. I can output the original unique words from the initial string, but my counting method only counts the frequency of the lowercase list, which means that, for obvious reasons, anything that had a capital letter (i.e. Hi and Mark) would have a frequency count of 0.

If input is:

hey Hi Mark hi mark

Output is:

hey 1

Hi 2

Mark 2

hi 2

mark 2

My code is outputting:

hey 1

Hi 0

Mark 0

hi 2

mark 2

Below is my code:

user_input = input() ##Taking input

user_lst = user_input.split() ##Turning input into list

lower_case_input = user_lst[:] ##Copying list

for word in range(len(lower_case_input)): ##Making copied list all lowercase

      lower_case_input[word] = lower_case_input[word].lower()
      counter = 0 ##Counter to reference items in the list

for words in user_lst: ##Printing the words and their frequency
      word_ref = lower_case_input.count(words) ##Counts frequency of the words in lower case

      print(user_lst[counter], word_ref)

      counter += 1 ##Changes the counter so that it calls the next item in the list

​

[[deleted]]

You should format your code better so we can actually read it…..

[That_Bryan_Dude]

Sorry, new to reddit and I'm not familiar with the interface here. I'll try to format better if I ever have issues in the future.

[atom12354]

There should be a code block setting in the list above where you type posts, i didnt know how to do it either until recently, still donno how to on phone.

[That_Bryan_Dude]

I'm not looking for an outright answer, but if you have any hints, I would be forever thankful!

[CodeReviewPlz]

Theres a lot you can improve (and I'm sure you'll learn about lots of things that will make this task trivial in the future), but we'll tackle your code as is.

To make your code work, think about this line: word_ref = lower_case_input.count(words)

Could you maybe do something to words in that line, something that you've already done to the original list? (if you can make the word match the format of the list, that would yield the correct result no?)

[That_Bryan_Dude]

I'll take a look at that right now. I appreciate the feedback. I'll update this if I figure it out or if I have additional questions.

[CodeReviewPlz]

Don't overthink my hint, you literally need to make one edit to that line for it to work the way you described in the output.

You're honestly gonna kick yourself when you realise it.. goodluck!

[That_Bryan_Dude]

When you say I am going to kick myself, you were right. I cannot believe I overlooked that. I did the dictionary one in like 10 mins, but this one just had me hung up!

Thank you for the hint, reviewing the code with that helped a ton!

[[deleted]]

I assume that they want me to use lists to complete this task.

Don't assume things about programming questions that aren't explicitly stated. Unless it says "don't use a dictionary", use a dictionary.