Word count example

word_count.py

import sys

# set our count variable as an empty dict
count = {}

# iterate through lines of input
for line in sys.stdin:
	# strip whitespace and line breaks
	line = line.strip()
	# break into a list of words (break apart at spaces)
	words = line.split()

	# now iterate through our words
	for word in words:

		# if the word has already been added to the dict
		# then add 1 to the stored value
		if word in count:
			count[word] += 1
		# otherwise, add the word to the dict with value of 1
		else: 
			count[word] = 1

# now iterate through a sorted list of the dict's keys
for word in sorted(count.keys()):
	# now print the word and it's value in alpha order
	print word, str(count[word])