How to count number of words in a string

My code is as follows

function [wordcount] = wordCount(strtxt, n)
wordcount=0;
y=1;
for x=1:length(strtxt)
space=strfind(strtxt, ' ');
period=strfind(strtxt, '.');
    if (x+n)==space(1)
        wordcount=wordcount+1;
    end
    if (x+n)==period
        wordcount=wordcount+1;
    else
        wordcount=0;
    end
    y=y+1;
end      
end

Before I explain, know that this is homework, and I'm limited to utilizing most of the built in functions involving strings that are already seen.

This question wants the function to count the number of words that have the number of letters n inside them.

This function gives me an error on x+n==space(1) (supposed to be space(y))

does anyone know how I might fix this? thanks.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

If there are no occurences then strfind() will return empty, and an empty array cannot be indexed at (1)

English is weak on defining what a word actually is . As a result, there are linguistic "words" in English that include space characters, or include dashes, or include apostrophe, or that include commas, or that include periods, or that include digits... and sometimes other symbols.

[John Jamieson]

For this, a word would include no spaces or punctuation. So per say, if the function recieved the string "Hi I am matt." and the parameter n was equal to two, the output would be two since Hi and am are both two letter words.

Answer 2

[Priyanka Yadav]

function [wordcount] = wordCount(strtxt, n) wordcount=0; y=1; for x=1:length(strtxt) space=strfind(strtxt, ' '); period=strfind(strtxt, '.'); if (x+n)==space(1) wordcount=wordcount+1; end if (x+n)==period wordcount=wordcount+1; else wordcount=0; end y=y+1; end end