I don't understand if you want to count each occurrence of a single letter, that is: from:

@x = qw(a b c b c d c d e f)

you want a report, something like:

a: 1; b: 2; c: 3; and so on, or you want a sub count which counts the recurrences of a single item you pass to it. That is: print count('c',@x) ; # prints 3

Since you already had solutions in the first case, I'll try to answer for the second. The reply is: grep

That is: count should just be something like this:

sub count {
  my ($string,@array) = @_ ;

  # count recurrence of $string in @array
  return scalar grep $_ eq $string, @array ;
}

[download]

For more information on grep you can just do a perldoc -f grep

Ciao!
--bronto

In reply to Re: array counting by bronto
in thread How can I count and display unique items in an array? (was: array counting) by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.