How would you count occurrences of a string (actually a char) within a string?

If you're using .NET 3.5 you can do this in a one-liner with LINQ:

int count = source.Count(f => f == '/');

If you don't want to use LINQ you can do it with:

int count = source.Split('/').Length - 1;

You might be surprised to learn that your original technique seems to be about 30% faster than either of these! I've just done a quick benchmark with "/once/upon/a/time/" and the results are as follows:

Your original = 12s
source.Count = 19s
source.Split = 17s
foreach (from bobwienholt's answer) = 10s

(The times are for 50,000,000 iterations so you're unlikely to notice much difference in the real world.)

string source = "/once/upon/a/time/";
int count = 0;
foreach (char c in source) 
  if (c == '/') count++;

Has to be faster than the source.Replace() by itself.

int count = new Regex(Regex.Escape(needle)).Matches(haystack).Count;

If you want to be able to search for whole strings, and not just characters:

src.Select((c, i) => src.Substring(i))
    .Count(sub => sub.StartsWith(target))

Read as "for each character in the string, take the rest of the string starting from that character as a substring; count it if it starts with the target string."

LINQ works on all collections, and since strings are just a collection of characters, how about this nice little one-liner:

var count = source.Count(c => c == '/');

Make sure you have using System.Linq; at the top of your code file, as .Count is an extension method from that namespace.

These both only work for single-character search terms...

countOccurences("the", "the answer is the answer");

int countOccurences(string needle, string haystack)
{
    return (haystack.Length - haystack.Replace(needle,"").Length) / needle.Length;
}

may turn out to be better for longer needles...

But there has to be a more elegant way. :)

Edit:

source.Split('/').Length-1

string s = "65 fght 6565 4665 hjk";
int count = 0;
foreach (Match m in Regex.Matches(s, "65"))
  count++;

Well as of .NET 5 (Net core 2.1+ & NetStandard 2.1) we have a new iteration speed king.

"Span<T>" https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.span-1?view=net-5.0

and String has a built-in member that returns us a Span<Char>

int count = 0;
foreach( var c in source.AsSpan())
{
    if (c == '/')
        count++;
}

My tests show 62% faster than a straight foreach. I also compared to a for() loop on a Span<T>[i], as well as a few others posted here. Note that the reverse for() iteration on a String seems to run slower now than a straight foreach.

Starting test, 10000000 iterations
(base) foreach =   673 ms

fastest to slowest
foreach Span =   252 ms   62.6%
  Span [i--] =   282 ms   58.1%
  Span [i++] =   402 ms   40.3%
   for [i++] =   454 ms   32.5%
   for [i--] =   867 ms  -28.8%
     Replace =  1905 ms -183.1%
       Split =  2109 ms -213.4%
  Linq.Count =  3797 ms -464.2%

UPDATE: Dec 2021, Visual Studio 2022, .NET 5 & 6

.NET 5
Starting test, 100000000 iterations set
(base) foreach =  7658 ms
fastest to slowest
  foreach Span =   3710 ms     51.6%
    Span [i--] =   3745 ms     51.1%
    Span [i++] =   3932 ms     48.7%
     for [i++] =   4593 ms     40.0%
     for [i--] =   7042 ms      8.0%
(base) foreach =   7658 ms      0.0%
       Replace =  18641 ms   -143.4%
         Split =  21469 ms   -180.3%
          Linq =  39726 ms   -418.8%
Regex Compiled = 128422 ms -1,577.0%
         Regex = 179603 ms -2,245.3%
         
         
.NET 6
Starting test, 100000000 iterations set
(base) foreach =  7343 ms
fastest to slowest
  foreach Span =   2918 ms     60.3%
     for [i++] =   2945 ms     59.9%
    Span [i++] =   3105 ms     57.7%
    Span [i--] =   5076 ms     30.9%
(base) foreach =   7343 ms      0.0%
     for [i--] =   8645 ms    -17.7%
       Replace =  18307 ms   -149.3%
         Split =  21440 ms   -192.0%
          Linq =  39354 ms   -435.9%
Regex Compiled = 114178 ms -1,454.9%
         Regex = 186493 ms -2,439.7%

I added more loops and threw in RegEx so we can see what a disaster it is to use in a lot of iterations. I think the for(++) loop comparison may have been optimized in .NET 6 to use Span internally - since it's almost the same speed as the foreach span.

Code Link

I felt that we were lacking certain kinds of sub string counting, like unsafe byte-by-byte comparisons. I put together the original poster's method and any methods I could think of.

These are the string extensions I made.

namespace Example
{
    using System;
    using System.Text;

    public static class StringExtensions
    {
        public static int CountSubstr(this string str, string substr)
        {
            return (str.Length - str.Replace(substr, "").Length) / substr.Length;
        }

        public static int CountSubstr(this string str, char substr)
        {
            return (str.Length - str.Replace(substr.ToString(), "").Length);
        }

        public static int CountSubstr2(this string str, string substr)
        {
            int substrlen = substr.Length;
            int lastIndex = str.IndexOf(substr, 0, StringComparison.Ordinal);
            int count = 0;
            while (lastIndex != -1)
            {
                ++count;
                lastIndex = str.IndexOf(substr, lastIndex + substrlen, StringComparison.Ordinal);
            }

            return count;
        }

        public static int CountSubstr2(this string str, char substr)
        {
            int lastIndex = str.IndexOf(substr, 0);
            int count = 0;
            while (lastIndex != -1)
            {
                ++count;
                lastIndex = str.IndexOf(substr, lastIndex + 1);
            }

            return count;
        }

        public static int CountChar(this string str, char substr)
        {
            int length = str.Length;
            int count = 0;
            for (int i = 0; i < length; ++i)
                if (str[i] == substr)
                    ++count;

            return count;
        }

        public static int CountChar2(this string str, char substr)
        {
            int count = 0;
            foreach (var c in str)
                if (c == substr)
                    ++count;

            return count;
        }

        public static unsafe int CountChar3(this string str, char substr)
        {
            int length = str.Length;
            int count = 0;
            fixed (char* chars = str)
            {
                for (int i = 0; i < length; ++i)
                    if (*(chars + i) == substr)
                        ++count;
            }

            return count;
        }

        public static unsafe int CountChar4(this string str, char substr)
        {
            int length = str.Length;
            int count = 0;
            fixed (char* chars = str)
            {
                for (int i = length - 1; i >= 0; --i)
                    if (*(chars + i) == substr)
                        ++count;
            }

            return count;
        }

        public static unsafe int CountSubstr3(this string str, string substr)
        {
            int length = str.Length;
            int substrlen = substr.Length;
            int count = 0;
            fixed (char* strc = str)
            {
                fixed (char* substrc = substr)
                {
                    int n = 0;

                    for (int i = 0; i < length; ++i)
                    {
                        if (*(strc + i) == *(substrc + n))
                        {
                            ++n;
                            if (n == substrlen)
                            {
                                ++count;
                                n = 0;
                            }
                        }
                        else
                            n = 0;
                    }
                }
            }

            return count;
        }

        public static int CountSubstr3(this string str, char substr)
        {
            return CountSubstr3(str, substr.ToString());
        }

        public static unsafe int CountSubstr4(this string str, string substr)
        {
            int length = str.Length;
            int substrLastIndex = substr.Length - 1;
            int count = 0;
            fixed (char* strc = str)
            {
                fixed (char* substrc = substr)
                {
                    int n = substrLastIndex;

                    for (int i = length - 1; i >= 0; --i)
                    {
                        if (*(strc + i) == *(substrc + n))
                        {
                            if (--n == -1)
                            {
                                ++count;
                                n = substrLastIndex;
                            }
                        }
                        else
                            n = substrLastIndex;
                    }
                }
            }

            return count;
        }

        public static int CountSubstr4(this string str, char substr)
        {
            return CountSubstr4(str, substr.ToString());
        }
    }
}

Followed by the test code...

static void Main()
{
    const char matchA = '_';
    const string matchB = "and";
    const string matchC = "muchlongerword";
    const string testStrA = "_and_d_e_banna_i_o___pfasd__and_d_e_banna_i_o___pfasd_";
    const string testStrB = "and sdf and ans andeians andano ip and and sdf and ans andeians andano ip and";
    const string testStrC =
        "muchlongerword amuchlongerworsdfmuchlongerwordsdf jmuchlongerworijv muchlongerword sdmuchlongerword dsmuchlongerword";
    const int testSize = 1000000;
    Console.WriteLine(testStrA.CountSubstr('_'));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrA.CountSubstr2('_'));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrA.CountSubstr3('_'));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrA.CountSubstr4('_'));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrA.CountChar('_'));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrA.CountChar2('_'));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrA.CountChar3('_'));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrA.CountChar4('_'));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrB.CountSubstr("and"));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrB.CountSubstr2("and"));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrB.CountSubstr3("and"));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrB.CountSubstr4("and"));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrC.CountSubstr("muchlongerword"));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrC.CountSubstr2("muchlongerword"));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrC.CountSubstr3("muchlongerword"));
    Console.WriteLine(testStrC.CountSubstr4("muchlongerword"));
    var timer = new Stopwatch();
    timer.Start();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrA.CountSubstr(matchA);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CS1 chr: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrB.CountSubstr(matchB);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CS1 and: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrC.CountSubstr(matchC);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CS1 mlw: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrA.CountSubstr2(matchA);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CS2 chr: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrB.CountSubstr2(matchB);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CS2 and: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrC.CountSubstr2(matchC);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CS2 mlw: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrA.CountSubstr3(matchA);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CS3 chr: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrB.CountSubstr3(matchB);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CS3 and: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrC.CountSubstr3(matchC);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CS3 mlw: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrA.CountSubstr4(matchA);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CS4 chr: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrB.CountSubstr4(matchB);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CS4 and: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrC.CountSubstr4(matchC);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CS4 mlw: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrA.CountChar(matchA);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CC1 chr: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrA.CountChar2(matchA);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CC2 chr: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrA.CountChar3(matchA);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CC3 chr: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");

    timer.Restart();
    for (int i = 0; i < testSize; ++i)
        testStrA.CountChar4(matchA);
    timer.Stop();
    Console.WriteLine("CC4 chr: " + timer.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds + "ms");
}

Results: CSX corresponds with CountSubstrX and CCX corresponds with CountCharX. "chr" searches a string for '_', "and" searches a string for "and", and "mlw" searches a string for "muchlongerword"

CS1 chr: 824.123ms
CS1 and: 586.1893ms
CS1 mlw: 486.5414ms
CS2 chr: 127.8941ms
CS2 and: 806.3918ms
CS2 mlw: 497.318ms
CS3 chr: 201.8896ms
CS3 and: 124.0675ms
CS3 mlw: 212.8341ms
CS4 chr: 81.5183ms
CS4 and: 92.0615ms
CS4 mlw: 116.2197ms
CC1 chr: 66.4078ms
CC2 chr: 64.0161ms
CC3 chr: 65.9013ms
CC4 chr: 65.8206ms

And finally, I had a file with 3.6 million characters. It was "derp adfderdserp dfaerpderp deasderp" repeated 100,000 times. I searched for "derp" inside the file with the above methods 100 times these results.

CS1Derp: 1501.3444ms
CS2Derp: 1585.797ms
CS3Derp: 376.0937ms
CS4Derp: 271.1663ms

So my 4th method is definitely the winner, but, realistically, if a 3.6 million character file 100 times only took 1586ms as the worse case, then all of this is quite negligible.

By the way, I also scanned for the 'd' char in the 3.6 million character file with 100 times CountSubstr and CountChar methods. Results...

CS1  d : 2606.9513ms
CS2  d : 339.7942ms
CS3  d : 960.281ms
CS4  d : 233.3442ms
CC1  d : 302.4122ms
CC2  d : 280.7719ms
CC3  d : 299.1125ms
CC4  d : 292.9365ms

The original posters method is very bad for single character needles in a large haystack according to this.

Note: All values were updated to Release version output. I accidentally forgot to build on Release mode upon the first time I posted this. Some of my statements have been amended.

A generic function for occurrences of strings:

public int getNumberOfOccurencies(String inputString, String checkString)
{
    if (checkString.Length > inputString.Length || checkString.Equals("")) { return 0; }
    int lengthDifference = inputString.Length - checkString.Length;
    int occurencies = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < lengthDifference; i++) {
        if (inputString.Substring(i, checkString.Length).Equals(checkString)) { occurencies++; i += checkString.Length - 1; } }
    return occurencies;
}

string Name = "Very good nice one is very good but is very good nice one this is called the term";
bool valid=true;
int count = 0;
int k=0;
int m = 0;
while (valid)
{
    k = Name.Substring(m,Name.Length-m).IndexOf("good");
    if (k != -1)
    {
        count++;
        m = m + k + 4;
    }
    else
        valid = false;
}
Console.WriteLine(count + " Times accures");

For the case of a string delimiter (not for the char case, as the subject says):
string source = "@@@once@@@upon@@@a@@@time@@@";
int count = source.Split(new[] { "@@@" }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).Length - 1;

The poster's original source value's ("/once/upon/a/time/") natural delimiter is a char '/' and responses do explain source.Split(char[]) option though...

**to count char or string **

 string st = "asdfasdfasdfsadfasdf/asdfasdfas/dfsdfsdafsdfsd/fsadfasdf/dff";
        int count = 0;
        int location = 0;
       
        while (st.IndexOf("/", location + 1) > 0)
        {
                count++;
                location = st.IndexOf("/", location + 1);
        }
        MessageBox.Show(count.ToString());

Looking for char counts is a lot different than looking for string counts. Also it depends if you want to be able to check more than one or not. If you want to check a variety of different char counts, something like this can work:

var charCounts =
   haystack
   .GroupBy(c => c)
   .ToDictionary(g => g.Key, g => g.Count());

var needleCount = charCounts.ContainsKey(needle) ? charCounts[needle] : 0;

Note 1: grouping into a dictionary is useful enough that it makes a lot of sense to write a GroupToDictionary extension method for it.

Note 2: it can also be useful to have your own implementation of a dictionary that allows for default values and then you could get 0 for non-existent keys automatically.