Count word except some special case

Count the number of words in a string, excluding the article (a, an, the), regardless of capitalization. Demonstrate the working of your code with an example string.

[Adam Danz]

This is clearly a homework assignment. You also haven't asked a question.

Show us what you've got and ask a specific question about the step where you're stuck. Don't ask people to do your homework for you.

[Mai Thành]

Oh I don't know about that, I'm sorry :(

so this is my code so far

x=input ('Input your string: ','s');
A1=strfind(x,'A ');
A2=strfind(x,' A.');
A3=strfind(x,' A ');
    real_A= A1+A2-A3;
a1=strfind(x,'a ');
a2=strfind(x,' a.');
a3=strfind(x,' a ');
    real_a= a1+a2-a3;
an1=strfind(x,'an ');
an2=strfind(x,' an.');
an3=strfind(x,' an ');
    real_an=an1+an2-an3;
An1=strfind(x,'An ');
An2=strfind(x,' An.');
An3=strfind(x,' An ');
    real_An=An1+An2-An3;
the1=strfind(x,'the '); 
the2=strfind(x,' the.');
the3=strfind(x,' the ');
    real_the=the1+the2+the3;
The1=strfind(x,'The ');
The2=strfind(x,' The.');
The3=strfind(x,' The ');
    real_The=The1+The2+The3;
        real=real_A + real_a + real_an + real_An + real_the + real_The;
    pos=strfind(x, ' ');
y=numel(pos)+1-real;
fprintf ('The number of word in the string is %f\n', y)

I calculate the number of spaces in the sentence and add 1 into it to have the number of words. Then I calculate the number of article words (a, an, the) and use the total words minus article words to have the answer. However, the are some case that ans =[] and any number add or minus with ans will have the result is []. I don't know how to fix it :(

Answer 1

[Chunru]

x ='some text here with a and an and the';
% you can use "lower" to convert it into lower case
%
% consider "split" to split the string into words with appropriate
% delimiters
%
% consider "ismember" to test the split words belong to "a" "an" and "the"
%     idx = ~ismember(splitwords, {'a', 'an', 'the'})
% "sum" up idx to get the number of words
%     n = sum(idx)

[Mai Thành]

thank you very much

[Adam Danz]

Mai Thành

Instead of handeling upper and lower cases separately, force the text to be upper or lower case.

Example:

x = 'A thesis is an example of The Program';
lower(x)

ans = 'a thesis is an example of the program'

upper(x)

ans = 'A THESIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE PROGRAM'

Use Chunru's advice to split the sentence into words and use ismember to determine which words match the exclusion list (a,an,the). The list should match the case you choose.

[Chunru]

x = 'A thesis is an example of The Program';
x = lower(x)

x = 'a thesis is an example of the program'

splitwords = split(x, {' ', '.', ',', ':', '?', '!'})

splitwords = 8×1 cell array
    {'a'      }
    {'thesis' }
    {'is'     }
    {'an'     }
    {'example'}
    {'of'     }
    {'the'    }
    {'program'}