title: How to count the number of words in a sentence, ignoring numbers, punctuation and whitespace?
body: <p>How would I go about counting the words in a sentence? I'm using Python.</p>
  
  <p>For example, I might have the string: </p>
  
  <pre><code>string = "I     am having  a   very  nice  23!@$      day. "
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>That would be 7 words. I'm having trouble with the random amount of spaces after/before each word as well as when numbers or symbols are involved. </p>