How to Check Characters in a Word in Python

In Python, dealing with strings and characters is an everyday activity and Python provides us with different methods and functionalities to cope with such string-related operations. One of the common operations is to check certain characters present in a word or not and even their frequency. This tutorial is focused on the various methods employed to effectively check characters in a word in Python.

Using the ‘in’ Keyword

The ‘in’ keyword in Python is used as a membership operator and it can check if a particular character occurs in a word. When the character is found in the word, the function returns True and if not, it will return False.

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#Python code
char = 'a'
word = 'apple'
print(char in word)

Using the count() method

The count() method in Python is used to get count of how many times a character occurs in a word. If the specific character does not exist in the given word, it returns 0.

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#Python code
char = 'a'
word = 'apple'
print(word.count(char))

Using the find() method

The find() method in Python is used to find the index of a specific character in a word. If the character exists in the word, it will return the index of the first occurrence of the character, and if the character does not exist in the word, it returns -1.

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#Python code
char = 'a'
word = 'apple'
print(word.find(char))

Combining methods

Combining the in, count(), and find() methods, we can create a function that returns whether a character exists in a word, how many times it occurs, and the index of its first occurrence.

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#Python code
def check_char(word, char):
    if char in word:
        return True, word.count(char), word.find(char)
    else:
        return False, 0, -1
 
print(check_char('apple', 'a'))

The complete code

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# Using the 'in' keyword
char = 'a'
word = 'apple'
print(char in word)
 
# Using the count() method
char = 'a'
word = 'apple'
print(word.count(char))
 
# Using the find() method
char = 'a'
word = 'apple'
print(word.find(char))
 
# Combining methods
def check_char(word, char):
    if char in word:
        return True, word.count(char), word.find(char)
    else:
        return False, 0, -1
 
print(check_char('apple', 'a'))

Output

True
1
0
(True, 1, 0)

Conclusion

The Python programming language provides various simple and sophisticated ways for checking whether a character is in a word. With the use of the ‘in’ keyword, count() method and find() method, we have been able to not only find if a character exists in a word but also to find the frequency of the character and its position in the word. Happy Coding!