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How to Count the Occurrence of a Specific Element in a Python tuple?

Posted in Programming   LAST UPDATED: DECEMBER 6, 2019

    At times, it might be required to count the number of times a specific element has been seen in a tuple. This can be done in a variety of ways in Python. We will see a few of them here:


    1. Using a counter

    In this approach, we will have a counter that will keep a tab on the number of times that specific element was found in the tuple. Each time it is found, the counter is incremented.


    Time for an example:

    my_tuple = (0, 15, 26, 78, 89, 38, 93, 2, 26, 5, 26) 
    element_to_be_searched = 26
    # initializing the counter
    count = 0
    for element in my_tuple:
        if element == element_to_be_searched:
            count += 1
    
    print("The element " + str(element_to_be_searched) + " was found "+str(count)+" times") 

    Output:

    The element 26 was found 3 times



    2. Using the built-in count() method

    The built-in count() method searches for the specified element in the python tuple and returns the count. It takes a single parameter (element whose count is to be found) and returns the occurrence.

    Syntax of the count() method:

    tuple_name.count(element_to_be_counted)

    Time for an example:

    my_tuple = (0, 15, 26, 78, 89, 38, 93, 2, 26, 5, 26) 
    count = my_tuple.count(26)
    print("The element was found "+str(count)+" times")   
         
    my_char_tuple = ('a', 'b', 's', 't', 'c', 's', 'u', 's', 's', 'm')
    char_count = my_char_tuple.count('s')
    print('The count of s is:', char_count)

    Output:

    The element was found 3 times
    The count of s is: 4

    Note: The built-in count() method can also be used to count the number of times a list or a tuple has occurred inside a tuple. Below is an example demonstrating the same.

    my_tuple = ('a', ['s', 't'], ['s', 'y'], ['s', 't'], (12, 0), ['s'])
    count = my_tuple.count(['s', 't'])
    print("The count is:", count)
    count = my_tuple.count((12))
    print("The count is:", count)
    count = my_tuple.count((12,0))
    print("The count is:", count)

    Output:

    The count is: 2
    The count is: 0
    The count is: 1



    Conclusion

    In this post, we understood how to obtain the count of a specific element inside a tuple. Don't forget to mention in the comments about how you would approach such a problem.

    About the author:
    I love writing about Python and have more than 5 years of professional experience in Python development. I like sharing about various standard libraries in Python and other Python Modules.
    Tags:PythonPython Tuple
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