Count number of times a word appears in php array

Question

I need to count how many times a user entered word appears in an array. The user enters text into a form textbox, and that text goes to a String variable in php, which is then exploded into an array with an index for every space.

I need to count how many times each word appears. Let's say the text is "yo yo yo man man man", then I need to count how many times the word "yo" appears as well as the amount of times "man" appears. Please keep in mind this text could be anything the user enters, so using a method such "str_word_count" isn't option, since it only takes hard-coded text.

The code I have set up so far:

form.php:

<html>

    <head>

        <title>Part 1</title>

    </head>

    <body>

        <h1></h1>

        <form action="part1result.php" method = "post">

            <input type="text" name="text"/>
            <input type="submit" value="Submit" />

        </form>

    </body>

</html>

result.php:

<head>

    <title></title>

</head>

<body>

    The text you entered was:

    <?php

        $text = $_POST['text']; // get text
        $textToCount = explode(' ', $text);
        echo $text.'<br><br>';

        for($i=0; $i<count($textToCount); $i++)
        {   

        }



    ?>

</body>

John Conde · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-25 01:50:14Z

2

Use array_count_values():

$textToCount = explode(' ', 'yo yo yo man man man');
print_r(array_count_values($textToCount));
//Array ( [yo] => 3 [man] => 3 )

In a foreach loop:

$textToCount = explode(' ', 'yo yo yo man man man');
$words = array_count_values($textToCount);
foreach ($words as $word => $count) {
     printf('%s appears %u times', $word, $count);
}

Just keep in mind that punctuation may throw this off so if punctuation is allowed be sure to remove it before using your code.

Always check the manual as PHP has a ton of built in functions for arrays. Demo

edited Apr 25, 2014 at 1:50

answered Apr 25, 2014 at 1:43

John Conde

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9 Comments

Dagoth Over a year ago

I've seen this as well. The problem I have with this method is that it allows me to print out how many times that word appear, sure, but not in the format that I wanted. I should have included that in the original post. The format I was looking for is: yo appears 3 times man appears 3 times etc...

John Conde Over a year ago

You do realize you can get this to appear in any format you want. This is just an array.

Dagoth Over a year ago

Right, but for the format I'm trying, I get duplicates. It prints "yo appears 3 times", 3 times.

John Conde Over a year ago

Then you need to fix your loop. Looping through this should be trivial.

Dagoth Over a year ago

There might be something I don't understand or am missing about associate arrays then.

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