Python’s Counter: The Pythonic Way to Count Objects
Counting several repeated objects at once is a common problem in programming. Python offers a bunch of tools and techniques you can use to approach this problem. However, Python’s Counter from collections provides a clean, efficient, and Pythonic solution.
This dictionary subclass provides efficient counting capabilities out of the box. Understanding Counter and how to use it efficiently is a convenient skill to have as a Python developer.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:
- Count several repeated objects at once
- Create counters with Python’s
Counter - Retrieve the most common objects in a counter
- Update object counts
- Use
Counterto facilitate further computations
You’ll also learn about the basics of using Counter as a multiset, which