I'm not a programmer by any means, but I did write this little word-counter while going through a Ruby book. You might find it useful...?

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lines = File.readlines("text.txt") line_count = lines.size text = lines.join total_characters = text.length total_characters_nospaces = text.gsub(/\s+/, '').length word_count = text.split.length sentence_count = text.split(/\.|\?|!/).length paragraph_count = text.split(/\n\n/).length

puts "This document contains:" puts "#{line_count} lines" puts "#{total_characters} characters" puts "#{total_characters_nospaces} characters excluding spaces" puts "#{word_count} words" puts "#{sentence_count} sentences." puts "#{paragraph_count} paragraphs." puts "#{sentence_count / paragraph_count} sentences per paragraph (average)" puts "#{word_count / sentence_count} words per sentence (average)"