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Thread: Function to return number of words in a string?

Function to return number of words in a string?

From
Peter Fein
Date:
Hiya-

I'm looking for a function to return the number of words in a string,
split on whitespace.  I'm coming from python, so I may just write it in
that but I wanted to check first.  In python, one would write:

s="some string or other"
len(s.split())

Thanks!

--
Peter Fein                 pfein@pobox.com                 773-575-0694

Basically, if you're not a utopianist, you're a schmuck. -J. Feldman

Re: Function to return number of words in a string?

From
"Jim C. Nasby"
Date:
You can use a combination of regex
(http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/static/functions-matching.html#FUNCTIONS-POSIX-REGEXP)
and strpos inside a plpgsql function to do this, but using plpython or
plperl might be faster. A C function would possibly be faster still.

On Mon, May 09, 2005 at 11:21:28AM -0500, Peter Fein wrote:
> Hiya-
>
> I'm looking for a function to return the number of words in a string,
> split on whitespace.  I'm coming from python, so I may just write it in
> that but I wanted to check first.  In python, one would write:
>
> s="some string or other"
> len(s.split())
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> Peter Fein                 pfein@pobox.com                 773-575-0694
>
> Basically, if you're not a utopianist, you're a schmuck. -J. Feldman
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 2: you can get off all lists at once with the unregister command
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>

--
Jim C. Nasby, Database Consultant               decibel@decibel.org
Give your computer some brain candy! www.distributed.net Team #1828

Windows: "Where do you want to go today?"
Linux: "Where do you want to go tomorrow?"
FreeBSD: "Are you guys coming, or what?"

Re: Function to return number of words in a string?

From
Steve Atkins
Date:
On Mon, May 09, 2005 at 11:49:41AM -0500, Jim C. Nasby wrote:
> You can use a combination of regex
> (http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/static/functions-matching.html#FUNCTIONS-POSIX-REGEXP)
> and strpos inside a plpgsql function to do this, but using plpython or
> plperl might be faster. A C function would possibly be faster still.
>
> On Mon, May 09, 2005 at 11:21:28AM -0500, Peter Fein wrote:
> > Hiya-
> >
> > I'm looking for a function to return the number of words in a string,
> > split on whitespace.  I'm coming from python, so I may just write it in
> > that but I wanted to check first.  In python, one would write:
> >
> > s="some string or other"
> > len(s.split())

    abacus=> select array_upper(string_to_array('one two three four', ' '), 1);
     array_upper
    -------------
               4
    (1 row)

Not that this is a _good_ way of doing it, but it is possible without resorting
to a PL.

Cheers,
  Steve

Re: Function to return number of words in a string?

From
Peter Fein
Date:
On 05/09/05 11:21 AM CDT, Peter Fein <pfein@pobox.com> said:
> Hiya-
>
> I'm looking for a function to return the number of words in a string,
> split on whitespace.  I'm coming from python, so I may just write it
> in that but I wanted to check first.  In python, one would write:
>
> s="some string or other"
> len(s.split())

For the archives:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION word_length(text)
  RETURNS int4 AS
'return len(args[0].split())'
  LANGUAGE 'plpythonu' IMMUTABLE STRICT;

Thanks all.

--
Peter Fein                 pfein@pobox.com                 773-575-0694

Basically, if you're not a utopianist, you're a schmuck. -J. Feldman