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Word Count Function
This page was last reviewed on Mar 14, 2023.
Dot Net Perls
Word count. Counting the words in a string can help determine if the string is appropriate for a specific usage in a program. For example, a summary may need to be a certain number of words.
Shows a word
In Rust, we are often focused on performance. Implementing a word counting function should use iteration over the chars in a string, and not allocate excessively.
Example program. To begin, we introduce the count_words function. This returns a usize, which is the number of words in the argument string.
fn
usize
Info We receive a str reference in count_words. This is ideal as a either a string literal or String can be passed to the function.
Next We iterate over the characters in the string by calling chars(). We store the previous char in a "mut" local variable.
Loop, String Chars
Finally We test the chars for ASCII character ranges using the built-in "is_ascii" functions in Rust.
Tip A word is defined as a sequence of letters, digits and punctuation following a whitespace char.
Shows a word
fn count_words(s: &str) -> usize { let mut total = 0; let mut previous = char::MAX; for c in s.chars() { // If previous char is whitespace, we are on a new word. if previous.is_ascii_whitespace() { // New word has alphabetic, digit or punctuation start. if c.is_ascii_alphabetic() || c.is_ascii_digit() || c.is_ascii_punctuation() { total += 1; } } // Set previous. previous = c; } if s.len() >= 1 { total += 1 } total } fn main() { let mut data = String::new(); data.push_str("cat, "); data.push_str("bird, "); data.push_str("and dog"); // Borrow String to call count_words. let count = count_words(&data); println!(" DATA: {}", data); println!("COUNT: {}", count); }
DATA: cat, bird, and dog COUNT: 4
Function results. In our simple example, the number of words is correctly determined. When no whitespace ends the string, it is important we add the final word to the count.
A summary. Many functions in other languages can be ported to Rust with minimal changes. The borrow checker is not involved, so memory issues are not a concern.
Dot Net Perls is a collection of tested code examples. Pages are continually updated to stay current, with code correctness a top priority.
Sam Allen is passionate about computer languages. In the past, his work has been recommended by Apple and Microsoft and he has studied computers at a selective university in the United States.
This page was last updated on Mar 14, 2023 (edit).
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