wcount.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

""" Reads a file and returns the number of lines, words
    and characters similar to the UNIX wc utility.
"""

infile = open("word_count.txt")
lines = infile.read().splitlines()

line_count = 0
word_count = 0
char_count = 0

for line in lines:
    words = line.split()
    line_count += 1
    word_count += len(words)
    char_count += len(line)

print("{} lines, {} words, {} characters".format(line_count, word_count,
    char_count))