Word Counter and Text Analysis Tools

Word counters are essential for writing, SEO, and content analysis.

Basic Word Count

function countWords(text) {
  return text
    .trim()
    .split(/\s+/)
    .filter(word => word.length > 0)
    .length;
}

// Usage
countWords('Hello world'); // 2
countWords('  Hello   world  '); // 2

Character Count

function countChars(text) {
  return text.length;
}

function countCharsNoSpaces(text) {
  return text.replace(/\s/g, '').length;
}

Line Count

function countLines(text) {
  return text.split('\n').length;
}

function countNonEmptyLines(text) {
  return text
    .split('\n')
    .filter(line => line.trim().length > 0)
    .length;
}

Complete Analysis

function analyzeText(text) {
  const words = text.trim().split(/\s+/).filter(w => w.length > 0);
  
  return {
    characters: text.length,
    charactersNoSpaces: text.replace(/\s/g, '').length,
    words: words.length,
    sentences: (text.match(/[.!?]+/g) || []).length,
    paragraphs: text.split(/\n\s*\n/).filter(p => p.trim().length > 0).length,
    lines: text.split('\n').length,
    readingTime: Math.ceil(words.length / 200), // 200 words/min
    uniqueWords: [...new Set(words.map(w => w.toLowerCase()))].length
  };
}

Reading Time Calculation

function getReadingTime(text, wordsPerMinute = 200) {
  const words = text.trim().split(/\s+/).length;
  const minutes = Math.ceil(words / wordsPerMinute);
  
  if (minutes < 1) return 'Less than a minute';
  if (minutes === 1) return '1 minute';
  return `${minutes} minutes`;
}

Word Frequency

function getWordFrequency(text, limit = 10) {
  const words = text.toLowerCase()
    .replace(/[^\w\s]/g, '')
    .split(/\s+/)
    .filter(w => w.length > 2);
  
  const freq = {};
  words.forEach(word => {
    freq[word] = (freq[word] || 0) + 1;
  });
  
  return Object.entries(freq)
    .sort((a, b) => b[1] - a[1])
    .slice(0, limit);
}

Common Use Cases

1. Blog Post SEO

function checkSEOWords(text) {
  const count = countWords(text);
  const min = 300;
  const ideal = 1500;
  
  return {
    count,
    passed: count >= min,
    recommendation: count < min 
      ? `Add ${min - count} more words`
      : count >= ideal 
        ? 'Good length for SEO'
        : `Consider adding ${ideal - count} more words`
  };
}

2. Social Media Limits

const limits = {
  twitter: 280,
  linkedin: 3000,
  instagram: 2200
};

function checkLimit(text, platform) {
  const limit = limits[platform];
  return {
    remaining: limit - text.length,
    exceeded: text.length > limit
  };
}

3. Document Requirements

function meetsRequirements(text, requirements) {
  const analysis = analyzeText(text);
  const results = {};
  
  for (const [key, min] of Object.entries(requirements)) {
    results[key] = {
      current: analysis[key],
      required: min,
      passed: analysis[key] >= min
    };
  }
  
  return results;
}

Best Practices

1. Trim whitespace - Before counting
2. Handle special chars - Clean punctuation
3. Consistent splitting - Use regex for split
4. Handle edge cases - Empty text, just spaces

Conclusion

Use word counters for writing, SEO, and content requirements. Most platforms have built-in limits. Reading time is useful for user experience.