Beginner · strings

Word Count

One line of text in, the number of words out. Simple — until the input has extra spaces, which is exactly what the hidden tests include.

Problem

Input: one line of text (letters and spaces only, up to 10,000 characters).

Output: the number of words — pieces separated by spaces, ignoring empty ones.

Sample:

Input	Output
`hello world`	`2`
`the quick brown fox`	`4`

Your solution

Program.cs — your solution

Custom input for "Run my input"

Judging runs entirely in your browser against hidden tests. Your code is saved locally as you type. Ctrl+Enter judges.

Stuck? Hints

Hint 1 — split, then count

line.Split(' ') gives you an array of pieces. Its Length would be one answer — but only if there are no repeated spaces.

Hint 2 — the empty-piece trap

Two spaces in a row produce an empty string in the array. Count only pieces with Length > 0 in a foreach. The hidden tests include lines of nothing but spaces.

Solution (try first!)

string[] words = Console.ReadLine().Split(' ');
int count = 0;
foreach (string w in words)
{
    if (w.Length > 0) count++;
}
Console.WriteLine(count);

This is the first problem where the naive answer is wrong for a whole class of inputs — the discipline of asking "what does the edge case look like?" is the real lesson.