Wordcount

In this assignment you will use your knowledge of Python basic strings, arithmetic, file reading, and dictionaries to create a command line utility to count the words in the text files in the books directory — (small.txt and alice.txt).

Complete the command-line python program named wordcount.py so that it will count the number of words in a text file using optional flags named --count and --topcount.

Example

$ python wordcount.py --count books/alice.txt
"'tis : 1
"--said : 1
"come : 2
"coming : 1
"edwin : 1
"french, : 1
"he's : 1
"how : 2
"i : 8
"i'll : 2
"it" : 2
"keep : 1
"let : 1
"much : 1
"poison" : 1
"purpose"?' : 1

$ python wordcount.py --topcount books/alice.txt
Top 20 most frequent words in books/alice.txt
the : 1605
and : 766
to : 706
a : 614
she : 518
of : 493
said : 421
it : 362
in : 352
was : 333
you : 265
i : 261
as : 249
that : 222
alice : 221
her : 208
at : 206
had : 176
with : 169
all : 155

Part A

For the --count flag, implement a print_words() function that counts how often each word appears in the text and prints:

word1 : count1
word2 : count2
...

Print the above list in order, sorted alphabetically by word (Python will sort punctuation to come before letters, which is fine — do not strip out punctuation). Store all the words as lowercase (i.e., 'The' and 'the' count as the same word).

Part B

For the --topcount flag, implement a print_top() function similar to print_words(), but which prints just the top 20 most common words sorted so the most common word is first, then the next most common, and so on.

Debugging

Use your VS Code IDE to set up a debug session and single-step your wordcount.py — Create two launch.json debug configurations: One with optional --count argument and one with --topcount argument.

PR (Pull Request) Workflow for this assignment

1. Fork this repository into your own personal GitHub account.
2. Clone your own repo to your local development machine.
3. Create a separate branch named dev and checkout the branch.
4. Commit your changes, then git push the branch back to your own GitHub account.
5. From your own GitHub repo, create a pull request (PR) from your dev branch back to your own master.
6. Copy/Paste the URL link to your PR as your assignment submission.
7. Your grader will post code review comments inline within your pull request in your GitHub account. Be sure to respond to any comments and make requested changes. RESUBMIT a new link to your PR after making changes. This is the code review iteration cycle.