Nick Bo wrote:
>  irb
> irb(main):001:0> string ="cat cat fox"
> => "cat cat fox"
> irb(main):002:0> stringArray = string.split(" ")
> => ["cat", "cat", "fox"]
> irb(main):003:0> string.count(stringArray[0])
> => 6
> 
> obviously what i want it to do is to count how many instances of cat
> there are in a string by using an array.  Reason for this is i want to
> be able to push the value of the count into a new array and make a hash
> using (word, count) and then be able to print the word and count and
> then do a method which will print the word and some kind of delimeter
> that will express how many times cat showed up so...
> 
> cat| ##
> 
> or something like that but first thing is first why wont it let me count
> how many instances of cat were in the string using an array? and why
> does it tell me 6?

String#count counts characters, not strings. You're asking how many c's, 
a's, and t's there are in "cat cat fox" and the answer is 6. 2 c's, 2 
a's, and 2 t's.

----------------------------------------------------------- String#count
      str.count([other_str]+)   => fixnum
------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Each other_str parameter defines a set of characters to count. The
      intersection of these sets defines the characters to count in str.
      Any other_str that starts with a caret (^) is negated. The
      sequence c1--c2 means all characters between c1 and c2.

         a = "hello world"
         a.count "lo"            #=> 5
         a.count "lo", "o"       #=> 2
         a.count "hello", "^l"   #=> 4
         a.count "ej-m"          #=> 4


-- 
RMagick: http://rmagick.rubyforge.org/