Word count algorithm issue

Question

So I am trying to make a word count program where the user can paste text in to get a word count of type text in to get a word count. The typing text in works for the most part but sometimes I get a string index out of range error when I try to go back and replace text. The pasting works but I am having issues with the string index being out of range issue here as well. My logic works like this: a space equals a word, two spaces back to back is minus one word, and the end of the string counts as a word. I am relatively new to Java and I thought this was going to be an easy thing to make, I was wrong! Some help/explanation would be appreciated!

 public static int getWordCount(String getInput, int e){
    int numberOfWords = 0;
    char l1 = 0;
    char l2 = 0;
    StringBuilder convertInput = new StringBuilder(getInput);
    System.out.println(convertInput);
    for (int i = 0, i1 = 1; i < getInput.length();i++, i1++){
        l2 = convertInput.charAt(i);
        if (l2 == ' '){
            numberOfWords += 1;
            l1 = convertInput.charAt(i1);
        }
        if (i == getInput.length() - 1){
            numberOfWords += 1;
        }
        if (l2 == ' ' && l1 == ' '){
            numberOfWords -= 1;
        }
    }
    return numberOfWords;
 } // end of getWordCount method 

Answer 1

you can do this easy and quick with:

String phrase = "word1 word2 word3 word4";
String delims = " "; //u can declare more delims here like delims = " ,.{[]}\"; 
String[] tokens = phrase.split(delims);

tokens.length = number of words in your string