How do i count the number of repeated characters in a list in python?

Count the number of Repeated element in the list

To count the Repeated element in list is very similar to the way we count the character in a string. here are three methods that can be use to do this.

Method 1 : Naive method

just like we learn in counting character in string we need to loop through the entire List for that particular element and then increase the counter when we meet the element again.

Example

you were given a variable MyList containing some elements you were to count the number of 'a' in the string.
Here is the codes:

MyList = ["b", "a", "a", "c", "b", "a", "c",'a']
count=0
for i in MyList:
    if i == 'a': 
        count = count + 1  
print ("the number of a in MyList is :", count)

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Output:

the number of a in MyList is : 4

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Method 2 : Using count()

Using count() is the convinient method in Python to get the occurrence of any element in List. the formula to count element in list with this method is:
list.count('element')

Example1

Let say we need to count 'b' in MyList here is the code:

MyList = ["b", "a", "a", "c", "b", "a", "c",'a']
counter_b=MyList.count('b')
print(counter_b)

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Output:

2

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Example2

what if we wish to count each of the elements in the List. our code will be..

MyList = ["b", "a", "a", "c", "b", "a", "c",'a']
duplicate_dict={} # a dictionary to store each of them.
for i in MyList:#loop through them.
    duplicate_dict[i]=MyList.count(i)
print(duplicate_dict)#to get the occurence of each of the element

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Output:

{'b': 2, 'a': 4, 'c': 2}

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A shortcuts code for the above are:

MyList = ["b", "a", "a", "c", "b", "a", "c",'a']
duplicate_dict = {i:MyList.count(i) for i in MyList}
print(duplicate_dict)

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Output:

{'b': 2, 'a': 4, 'c': 2}

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Method3 : Using collections.Counter()

This method works also the same way only that you need to import Counter from the collection before use.
Let's see how to use it to solve the same question

#we need to import counter function.
from collections import Counter
MyList = ["a", "b", "a", "c", "c", "a", "c"]
duplicate_dict = Counter(MyList)
print(duplicate_dict)#to get occurence of each of the element.
print(duplicate_dict['a'])# to get occurence of specific element.

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Output:

Counter({'a': 3, 'c': 3, 'b': 1})
3

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remember to import the Counter if you are using Method otherwise you get error. I hope you find this helpful, yeah keep on enjoying coding.

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