Python List count()

In this article, we will discuss about the usage details of count() method of List in Python.

Table Of Contents

Introduction

The count() method of list accepts an element as an argument, and returns the occurrence count of that element in the list. Basically it checks how many times the given element appears in the list and return that number.

Syntax of List count() method

occurrenceCount = list.count(element)

Parameters

• element : The element whose occurrence count need to be fetched from the list.

Returns

It returns occurrence count of the given element in the list. Basically how many times the given element appears in the list. If given element does not exist in the list then it will return zero.

Let us see some examples.

Example 1 of List count() method

Suppose we have a list of numbers and we want to know how many times number 11 appears in this list. For that we will call the count() method of list and pass number 11 as argument in it. The count() method will return a number i.e. how many times number 11 appears in the list. Let us see the example,

listOfNumbers = [11, 22, 33, 11, 44, 11, 55]

element = 11

# Get occurrence count of given element in list
occurrenceCount = listOfNumbers.count(element)

print(occurrenceCount)

Output:

3

It returned 3, because the number 11 occurred at 3 different places in the list.

Example 2 of List count() method

Suppose we have a list of strings and now we want to know the occurrence count of a string “why” in the list. For that, again we will call the count() function of the list in past the string “why” in it.

listOfStrings = ["is", "at", "what", "how", "the"]

element = "why"

# Get occurrence count of given element in list
occurrenceCount = listOfStrings.count(element)

print(occurrenceCount)

Output:

0

As the list does not have any string “why” in it, therefore the count() method returns zero in this case.

Example 3 of List count() method

Let’s see another example in which we will try to find the occurrence count of string “how”.

listOfStrings = ["is", "how", "what", "how", "the", "how", "how"]

element = "how"

# Get occurrence count of given element in list
occurrenceCount = listOfStrings.count(element)

print(occurrenceCount)

Output:

4

The string “how” occurred at 4 different places in the list, therefore the count method returned the number 4.

Summary

In this article we learn all about the count() method of list in Python.