Python string count not working properly? [duplicate]

Answer 1

Documentation to the rescue: https://docs.python.org/2/library/string.html

Return the number of (non-overlapping) occurrences of substring sub in string s[start:end]. Defaults for start and end and interpretation of negative values are the same as for slices.

Answer 2

From the Python string function documentation

Return the number of non-overlapping occurrences of substring sub in the range [start, end]. Optional arguments start and end are interpreted as in slice notation.

count does not count overlapping occurrences.

If you want to count overlapping occurrences you can use regex with a lookahead assertion:

import re
print(len(re.findall('(?=aba)', 'ababa')))