Recipe 1.9. Processing a String One Word at a Time

 class String
2   def word_count
3     frequencies = Hash.new(0)
4     downcase.scan(/\w+/) { |word| frequencies[word] += 1 }
5     return frequencies
6   end
7 end
8 
9 puts %{Dogs dogs dog dog dogs.}.word_count

Output: dogs3dog2

 

 1 class String
 2   def word_count
 3     frequencies = Hash.new(0)
 4     downcase.scan(/(\w+([-'.]\w+)*)/) { |word, ignore| frequencies[word] += 1 }
 5     return frequencies
 6   end
 7 end
 8 
 9 puts %{Dogs dogs dog dog dogs.}.word_count
10 puts %{"That F.B.I. fella--he's quite the man-about-town."}.word_count

Output: dogs3dog2
　　       quite1f.b.i1the1fella1that1man-about-town1he's1