Title: Create Counts Of Items
Slug: creating_counts_of_items
Summary: Create Counts Of Items in Python.
Date: 2016-01-23 12:00
Category: Python
Tags: Basics
Authors: Chris Albon

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Preliminaries



In [1]:

    
from collections import Counter

Create A Counter



In [2]:

    
# Create a counter of the fruits eaten today
fruit_eaten = Counter(['Apple', 'Apple', 'Apple', 'Banana', 'Pear', 'Pineapple'])

# View counter
fruit_eaten









    Out[2]:





Counter({'Apple': 3, 'Banana': 1, 'Pear': 1, 'Pineapple': 1})

Update The Count For An Element



In [3]:

    
# Update the count for 'Pineapple' (because you just ate an pineapple)
fruit_eaten.update(['Pineapple'])

# View the counter
fruit_eaten









    Out[3]:





Counter({'Apple': 3, 'Banana': 1, 'Pear': 1, 'Pineapple': 2})

View The Items With The Highest Counts



In [4]:

    
# View the items with the top 3 counts
fruit_eaten.most_common(3)









    Out[4]:





[('Apple', 3), ('Pineapple', 2), ('Banana', 1)]