Find the number of characters in a file using Python

Question

Here is the question:

I have a file with these words:

hey how are you
I am fine and you
Yes I am fine

And it is asked to find the numbe

Answer 1

You do have the correct answer - and your code is completely correct. The thing that I think it is doing is that there is an end of line character being passed through, which includes your character count by two (there isn't one on the last line, as there is no new line to go to). If you want to remove this, the simple fudge would be to do as Loaf suggested

characters = characters - (lines - 1)

See csl's answer for the second part...