Python String count() Function

The String count() method returns the number of times the substring appears in the string.

note

You can limit the search by specifying optional arguments for start and end indexes.

Syntax

my_string.count(sub, start, end)

count() Parameters

Python String count() function parameters:

Parameter	Condition	Description
sub	Required	Any string you want to search for
start	Optional	An index specifying where to start the search. Default value is 0.
end	Optional	An index specifying where to stop the search. Default is the end of the string.

count() Return Value

Python String count() function returns an integer representing the number of occurrences of the specified substring in the string.

Examples

Example 1: Count number of occurrences of a given substring

Let's count the number of occurrences of the substring Bi in the given string

my_str = 'Big, Bigger, Biggest'
substring = 'Bi'

count = my_str.count(substring)
print(count) # Output: 3

output

3

If the substring does not appear in the given string, then count() method will return 0:

my_str = "Big, Bigger, Biggest"
substring = 'Aaa'

count = my_str.count(substring)
print(count) # Output: 0

output

0

Example 2: Count number of occurrences of a given substring with start and end indexes

If you want to count occurrences not starting from the beginning, you have to specify the start parameter. Similarly, you can also specify where to stop the counting with end parameter.

my_str = 'Big, Bigger, Biggest'
substring = "Bi"

# count
count = my_str.count(substring)       
print(count) # Output: 3

# count after 4th index
count_with_start = my_str.count(substring, 4)
print(count_with_start) # Output: 2

# count between 4th and 6th index
count_with_start_end = my_str.count(substring, 4, 6) 
print(count_with_start_end) # Output: 0

output

3
2
0

Example 3: Count occurrence of a character in a given string

You can also count the number of occurrences of a character in a given string:

my_str = 'Big, Bigger, Biggest'
substring = "g"

count = my_str.count(substring)
print(count) # Output: 5

output

5