How many z's? | http://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t31.0-8/s720x720/10273096_620113888071224_6504456192424711689_o.png

chars

$> echo "Zanzibar, zambeZi" | perl -le "@_= <STDIN> =~ m/z/g; print scalar(@_);"

$> echo "Zanzibar, zambeZi" | perl -le "print (scalar(split /z/, <STDIN>) - 1);"

--
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use feature q{say};

my $z;
chomp(my $input = <STDIN>);
for (split /\s*/, $input) {$z++ if $_ eq 'z'}
say $z;