count recurring letters | Python Fiddle

# 6.00 Problem Set 3
# 
# Hangman
#

# -----------------------------------
# Helper code
# (you don't need to understand this helper code)
import random
import string

WORDLIST_FILENAME = "words.txt"

def load_words():
    """
    Returns a list of valid words. Words are strings of lowercase letters.
    
    Depending on the size of the word list, this function may
    take a while to finish.
    """
    print "Loading word list from file..."
    # inFile: file
    inFile = open(WORDLIST_FILENAME, 'r', 0)
    # line: string
    line = inFile.readline()
    # wordlist: list of strings
    wordlist = string.split(line)
    print "  ", len(wordlist), "words loaded."
    return wordlist

def choose_word(wordlist):
    """
    wordlist (list): list of words (strings)

Returns a word from wordlist at random
    """
    return random.choice(wordlist)

# end of helper code
# -----------------------------------

# actually load the dictionary of words and point to it with 
# the wordlist variable so that it can be accessed from anywhere
# in the program
wordlist = load_words()

# your code begins here!

def available_letters(letters_string, guessed_letter):
    letters_list = list(letters_string)
    index = find_letter(letters_list, guessed_letter)
    del letters_list[index]
    letters_string = ''.join(letters_list)
    #print "letters_string within the function", letters_string
    return letters_string

def find_letter(word, guessed_letter): ###Returns a list of index values of where the letter occurs.
    index = 0
    index_list = []
    for letter in word:
        if letter == guessed_letter:
            index_list = index_list + [index,]
        index +=1
    return index_list
### Use this to determine whether a guess is good or not. If index_list =/ None, then guess is good. But estimate how many lines of code would be run through each time.

def update_word(word_blanks, guessed_letter, index_list):
	for index in index_list:    
	word_blanks[index] = guessed_letter
	print word_blanks

word = choose_word(wordlist)
print word
print "Welcome to the game, Hangman!"
print "I'm thinking of a word that is", len(word), "letters long."
letters_string = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
word_blanks = ["_",]*len(word)

for guess_number in range(26,1,-1):
    if guess_number==1:
        print "You have", guess_number, "guess left."
    else:
    	print "You have", guess_number, "guesses left."
    print "Available letters:", letters_string
    guessed_letter = raw_input ("Please guess a letter:")
    if type(guessed_letter) =/ str or if len(guessed_letter) > 1:
        print "Oh no! You just wasted one of your guesses by not guessing a single letter!"
    else:
    	guessed_letter = guessed_letter.lower()
    	#print guessed_letter
    	index_list = find_letter(word, guessed_letter)
    	#print index_list
 
    if guessed_letter in word:
        word_blanks = update_word(word_blanks, guessed_letter, index_list)
        delimiter = ' '
		updated_word = delimiter.join(word_blanks)
        print "Good guess:", str(updated_word)
    else:
        print "Oops! That letter is not in my word:"
    letters_string = available_letters(letters_string, guessed_letter) #updates which letters are available

word = "cheese"
guessed_letter = "e"
index_list = find_letter(word, guessed_letter)

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