Easiest way to calculate number of character in string

[Ove Svensson]

"P. Schmidt-Volkmar" <no_spam at tauth.de> writes:

> Hi there,
> 
> I have a string in which I want to calculate how often the character  ';' 
> occurs. If the character does not occur 42 times, the ";" should be added so 
> the 42 are reached.
> 
> My solution is slow and wrong:
>     for Position in range (0, len(Zeile)):
>         if Zeile[Position]==';': AnzahlSemikolon = AnzahlSemikolon +1
>     if AnzahlSemikolon < 42:
>         for Zaehler in range(AnzahlSemikolon, 42):
>             Zeile = Zeile + ';'
>         Dreckskram = Dreckskram +1
> 
> How can this be achieved easily?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Pascal 
> 
> 

What about this:

Zaehler += ';'*max(0,42-Zaehler.count(';'))