Counting Words

[Gian04]

Is there a PHP function to count the number of words?

[Habtom]

You can explode the words with space while using the count function to count the number of words exploded.

[Gian04]

What if the user enter multiple spaces between words, Would it not cause any problem with explode?

[PHP_Chimp]

<?php
$str = 'this is a set of words';
$p = '%\s+%';
$t = preg_split($p, $str, -1, PREG_SPLIT_OFFSET_CAPTURE);
echo '<pre>';
print_r($t);
echo '</pre>';

$num_words = count($t);
echo $num_words;
?>

Output -

Array
(
 [0] => Array
 (
 [0] => this
 [1] => 0
 )
 [1] => Array
 (
 [0] => is
 [1] => 5
 )
 [2] => Array
 (
 [0] => a
 [1] => 8
 )
 [3] => Array
 (
 [0] => set
 [1] => 10
 )
 [4] => Array
 (
 [0] => of
 [1] => 14
 )
 [5] => Array
 (
 [0] => words
 [1] => 17
 )
)
6

So this way you can have as many spaces, line breaks or tabs between words.

[Habtom]

What if the user enter multiple spaces between words

You have to make a few cleanups. Spaces, and other symbols which are not likely to be counted as words can be removed while counting.

[ayushchd]

I am not too sure, but would the str_word_count function help you as it returns the number of words in a string..

[php.net...]

[mvhemanth]

why dont you download a copy of the PHP manual