title: Python: Count the Total number of words in a file?
body: <p>for this program I'm trying to ask the user enter as much text as he/she wants in a file and have the program count the Total number of words that was stored in that file. For instance, if I type "Hi I like to eat blueberry pie" the program should read a total of 7 words. The program runs fine until I type in Option 6, where it counts the number of words. I always get this error: 'str' object has no attribute 'items'</p>
  
  <pre><code>#Prompt the user to enter a block of text.
  done = False
  textInput = ""
  while(done == False):
      nextInput= input()
      if nextInput== "EOF":
          break
      else:
          textInput += nextInput
  
  #Prompt the user to select an option from the Text Analyzer Menu.
  print("Welcome to the Text Analyzer Menu! Select an option by typing a number"
      "\n1. shortest word"
      "\n2. longest word"
      "\n3. most common word"
      "\n4. left-column secret message!"
      "\n5. fifth-words secret message!"
      "\n6. word count"
      "\n7. quit")
  
  #Set option to 0.
  option = 0
  
  #Use the 'while' to keep looping until the user types in Option 7.
  while option !=7:
      option = int(input())
  
      #I get the error in this section of the code.
      #If the user selects Option 6, print out the total number of words in the
      #text.
      elif option == 6:
          count = {}
          for i in textInput:
              if i in count:
                  count[i] += 1
              else:
                  count[i] = 1
          #The error lies in the for loop below. 
          for word, times in textInput.items():
              print(word , times)
  </code></pre>