#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

use strict;
open FILE, "<input.txt" or die "Blerch: $!\n";
local $/=undef;
my $text=<FILE>;
close FILE;
print $text;
my @ands = $text =~/\b(and)\b/ig;
print scalar @ands;
__END__
But now I know that twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle.
And what rough beast, it's hour come round at last,
slouches towards Betlehem to be born?

And the world turned around the sun.
2
[download]

Have a look at perlre for more information on regular expressions.

CU
Robartes-

How about not slurping?

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $count = 0;
$count += /\band\b/g while <>;
print "$count\n";
[download]

Makeshifts last the longest.

Of course :). BTW, your solution does not catch multiple 'and's in one line (you just count the number of lines 'and' occurs in at least once). The best of both our worlds would be:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my $count = 0;
$count += () = /\band\b/ig while <>;
print "$count\n";
[download]

but you were probably aware of this :-)

CU
Robartes-

while(<>) {            # loop thru all file arguments' lines
    for (split) {       # split line on default separator (' ')
        $occ{$_}++;     # increment counter for each word
    }
}
print $occ{'and'}+$occ{'the'};   # add occurrences
[download]

I haven't actually checked if th