Python: How can I calculate the average word length in a sentence using the .split command?

Question

new to python here. I am trying to write a program that calculate the average word length in a sentence and I have to do it using the .split command. btw im using python 3.2

Answer 1

The concise version:

average = lambda lst: sum(lst)/len(lst) #average = sum of numbers in list / count of numbers in list
avg = average([len(word) for word in sentence.split()]) #generate a list of lengths of words, and calculate average

The step-by-step version:

def average(numbers):
    return sum(numbers)/len(numbers)
sentence = input("Please enter a sentence: ")
words = sentence.split()
lengths = [len(word) for word in words]
print 'Average length:', average(lengths)

Output:

>>> 
Please enter a sentence: Hey, what's up?
Average length: 4