Dict subclass for counting hashable items. Sometimes called a bag or multiset. Elements are stored as dictionary keys and their counts are stored as dictionary values.
>>> c = Counter('abcdeabcdabcaba') # count elements from a string
>>> c.most_common(3) # three most common elements
[('a', 5), ('b', 4), ('c', 3)]
>>> sorted(c) # list all unique elements
['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']
>>> ''.join(sorted(c.elements())) # list elements with repetitions
'aaaaabbbbcccdde'
>>> sum(c.values()) # total of all counts
15
>>> c['a'] # count of letter 'a'
5
>>> for elem in 'shazam': # update counts from an iterable
... c[elem] += 1 # by adding 1 to each element's count
>>> c['a'] # now there are seven 'a'
7
>>> del c['b'] # remove all 'b'
>>> c['b'] # now there are zero 'b'
0
>>> d = Counter('simsalabim') # make another counter
>>> c.update(d) # add in the second counter
>>> c['a'] # now there are nine 'a'
9
>>> c.clear() # empty the counter
>>> c
Counter()
Note: If a count is set to zero or reduced to zero, it will remain
in the counter until the entry is deleted or the counter is cleared:
>>> c = Counter('aaabbc')
>>> c['b'] -= 2 # reduce the count of 'b' by two
>>> c.most_common() # 'b' is still in, but its count is zero
[('a', 3), ('c', 1), ('b', 0)]
