Count the number of occurrences of each letter in string

Question

How can I count the number of occurrences in c of each letter (ignoring case) in the string? So that it would print out letter: # number of occurences, I have c

Answer 1

#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>

#define filename "somefile.txt"

int main()
{
    FILE *fp;
    int count[26] = {0}, i, c;  
    char ch;
    char alpha[27] = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuwxyz";
    fp = fopen(filename,"r");
    if(fp == NULL)
        printf("file not found\n");
    while( (ch = fgetc(fp)) != EOF) {
        c = 0;
        while(alpha[c] != '\0') {

            if(alpha[c] == ch) {
                count[c]++; 
            }
            c++;
        }
    }
    for(i = 0; i<26;i++) {
        printf("character %c occured %d number of times\n",alpha[i], count[i]);
    }
    return 0;
}

Answer 2

Like this:

int counts[26];
memset(counts, 0, sizeof(counts));
char *p = string;
while (*p) {
    counts[tolower(*p++) - 'a']++;
}

This code assumes that the string is null-terminated, and that it contains only characters a through z or A through Z, inclusive.

To understand how this works, recall that after conversion tolower each letter has a code between a and z, and that the codes are consecutive. As the result, tolower(*p) - 'a' evaluates to a number from 0 to 25, inclusive, representing the letter's sequential number in the alphabet.

This code combines ++ and *p to shorten the program.

Answer 3

Have checked that many of the answered are with static array, what if suppose I have special character in the string and want a solution with dynamic concept. There can be many other possible solutions, it is one of them.

here is the solutions with the Linked List.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

struct Node { 
    char data; 
    int counter;
    struct Node* next; 
};

void printLinkList(struct Node* head)
{
    while (head != NULL) { 
        printf("\n%c occur %d", head->data, head->counter);
        head = head->next;
    }
}

int main(void) {
    char *str = "!count all the occurances of character in string!";
    int i = 0;
    char tempChar;
    struct Node* head = NULL; 
    struct Node* node = NULL; 
    struct Node* first = NULL; 

    for(i = 0; i < strlen(str); i++)
    {
        tempChar = str[i];

        head = first;

        if(head == NULL)
        {
            node = (struct Node*)malloc(sizeof(struct Node));
            node->data = tempChar;
            node->counter = 1;
            node->next = NULL;

            if(first == NULL)
            {
                first = node;
            }
        }
        else
        {
            while (head->next != NULL) { 
                if(head->data == tempChar)
                {
                    head->counter = head->counter + 1;
                    break;
                }
                head = head->next;
            }

            if(head->next == NULL)
            {
                if(head->data == tempChar)
                {
                    head->counter = head->counter + 1;
                }
                else
                {
                    node = (struct Node*)malloc(sizeof(struct Node));
                    node->data = tempChar;
                    node->counter = 1;
                    node->next = NULL;
                    head->next = node;
                }
            }
        }
    }

    printLinkList(first);


    return 0;
}