#!/usr/bin/env python
#
# -- wc.py --
#
# Count lines, words, and characters in a file.
#
# Note that this 'wc' file was made executable with
#    $ chmod +x wc.py
#
# With this text in plain.txt :
# 
#    This is a file full of text.
#    At least, I *think* that it is.
#    What do you think?  Yes?  No?
#
# Running it looks like this :
#    $ ./wc.py plain.txt
#    file    : plain.txt 
#    lines   : 3 
#    words   : 20 
#    letters : 91 
#
# The filename is taken from the command line with the sys.argv list.  
# For example, if this program were just
#
#   import sys
#   print sys.argv
#
# Then running it like this
#
#    $ ./wc.py some stuff
#
# would print this:
#
#    ['wc.py', 'some', 'stuff']
#
#
# Jim Mahoney, Sep 2012, GPL

import sys

filename = sys.argv[1]       # sys.argv is e.g. ['wc', 'file.txt']
file = open(filename, 'r')
lines = file.readlines()     # = ['first line\n', 'second line\n']

count_lines = len(lines)     # len() is the length function.
count_words = 0
count_letters = 0
for line in lines:
  count_letters = count_letters + len(line)
  count_words = count_words + len(line.split())  # split line at spaces

print " file    : %s " % filename
print " lines   : %i " % count_lines
print " words   : %i " % count_words
print " letters : %i " % count_letters