From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail
From: Angus Comber <anguscomber@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help
Subject: How to get count of a specific character
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2014 06:29:35 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <bc4b3de7-4e3c-4769-8343-831ed69dabdf@googlegroups.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1391524216 29044 80.91.229.3 (4 Feb 2014 14:30:16 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2014 14:30:16 +0000 (UTC)
To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Feb 04 15:30:23 2014
Return-path: <help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org>
Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org
Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17])
	by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69)
	(envelope-from <help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org>)
	id 1WAh14-000729-EH
	for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 04 Feb 2014 15:30:22 +0100
Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:52809 helo=lists.gnu.org)
	by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71)
	(envelope-from <help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org>)
	id 1WAh13-0001aS-P4
	for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 04 Feb 2014 09:30:21 -0500
X-Received: by 10.66.222.105 with SMTP id ql9mr17703815pac.9.1391524175967;
	Tue, 04 Feb 2014 06:29:35 -0800 (PST)
X-Received: by 10.50.13.7 with SMTP id d7mr298058igc.16.1391524175669; Tue, 04
	Feb 2014 06:29:35 -0800 (PST)
Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!uq10no9277740igb.0!news-out.google.com!vg8ni7igb.0!nntp.google.com!uq10no9277728igb.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail
Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com
Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=195.200.76.252;
	posting-account=SYwseQoAAABBYGT-AD1YXrcTXHxLkDZy
Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 195.200.76.252
User-Agent: G2/1.0
Injection-Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 14:29:35 +0000
Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:203629
X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14
Precedence: list
List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor <help-gnu-emacs.gnu.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/options/help-gnu-emacs>,
	<mailto:help-gnu-emacs-request@gnu.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-gnu-emacs>
List-Post: <mailto:help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
List-Help: <mailto:help-gnu-emacs-request@gnu.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs>,
	<mailto:help-gnu-emacs-request@gnu.org?subject=subscribe>
Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org
Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org
Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:95899
Archived-At: <http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help/95899>

I have a buffer which is a massive long line of names followed by semi-colon.  I want to get a list of the number of names I have.  I can highlight the region and use wc to get count of words and divide by 2 to get a rough measure.

But it would be an easy task if I could simply get a count of the number of semi-colon characters?

Does anyone know a way to get this?