Text Counter

Goals

• Use len() to count characters and lines
• Use str.split() to split text into words
• Read multi-line input with a sentinel loop
• Format a summary report with f-strings

Prerequisites

• Strings and string methods
• Lists and len()
• for or while loops

Steps

2. 1

   Read multi-line input

   Read lines from the user until they type a sentinel line ("END"). A while loop with a break condition is the standard way to read unknown-length input.

   CodeCopy

   lines = []
   print("Enter text. Type END on its own line to finish.")
   while True:
       line = input()
       if line == "END":
           break
       lines.append(line)

   Expected result

   The script reads lines until the user types END, storing them in a list.

   Show hint
4. 2

   Join lines and count characters

   Join the lines into one string with newline separators, then use len() to count characters. len() on a string returns the number of characters including spaces.

   CodeCopy

   text = "\n".join(lines)
   char_count = len(text)

   Expected result

   char_count holds the total number of characters in the joined text.

6. 3

   Count words and lines

   Use text.split() to split on any whitespace and len() to count the resulting words. Line count is just len(lines). split() with no argument handles multiple spaces and newlines.

   CodeCopy

   words = text.split()
   word_count = len(words)
   line_count = len(lines)

   Expected result

   word_count and line_count hold the two remaining counts.

8. 4

   Print the summary

   Print all three counts with f-strings. A clear summary is the output the user actually wants from a counting tool.

   CodeCopy

   print(f"Characters: {char_count}")
   print(f"Words:      {word_count}")
   print(f"Lines:      {line_count}")

   Expected result

   Three lines showing the character, word, and line counts.

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