Finding max character count in a string using Python 3

Question

I'm working on a lab (in Python 3) that requires me to find and print the character in a string that occurs most frequently. For example:

>>> print(maxCharCount('apple'))
['p']

The idea is to do this using a loop, but I'm confused about how to do this.

`maxCharCount = lambda string: sorted(string, key=lambda s: string.count(s))[-1]` — zondo, Mar 02 '16 at 01:29
Possible duplicate of [Finding the most frequent character in a string](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4131123/finding-the-most-frequent-character-in-a-string) — idjaw, Mar 02 '16 at 01:35

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 02 '16 at 01:39

4

def maxCharCount(ss):
    return max(ss, key=ss.count)

answered Mar 02 '16 at 01:39

bddap

371
3
6

Interestingly, it works without the `key` argument: `max(string)` as in `max('apple')` returns 'p' – ChrisFreeman Mar 02 '16 at 01:46
As long as you are careful to avoid those pesky edge cases, like "apples" and "oranges". – bddap Mar 02 '16 at 02:00

pipiripi · Answer 2 · 2016-03-02T01:48:56.017

1

Since you really want to use a for loop:

a = 'apple'
m = set(a)
max = 0
for i in m:
    if a.count(i) > max:
         max = a.count(i)

edit: I didnt read good, you actually want the letter not the number of times it appear so i edit this code into:

a = 'apple'
m = set(a)
max = 0
p = ''
for i in m:
        if a.count(i) > max:
             max = a.count(i)
             p = i

edited Mar 02 '16 at 01:48

answered Mar 02 '16 at 01:38

pipiripi

11
2

You can not use `set` because it will remove one `'p'`. – Mauro Baraldi Mar 02 '16 at 01:46
@MauroBaraldi the set is only used on the loop to limit redundant iterations. The count is still performed on the string 'a' – ChrisFreeman Mar 02 '16 at 01:49

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 02 '16 at 01:40

def max_char_count(string):
    max_char = ''
    max_count = 0
    for char in set(string):
        count = string.count(char)
        if count > max_count:
            max_count = count
            max_char = char
    return max_char

print(max_char_count('apple'))

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 02 '16 at 01:52

def count(char, string):
    c = 0
    for s in string:
        if char == s:
            c += 1
    return c

def max_char_count(string):
    biggest = string[0]
    for c in string:
        if count(c,string) > count(biggest,string):
            biggest = c
    return biggest

Finding max character count in a string using Python 3

4 Answers4