Want to count values in a Python sequence? Use Counter:
c = Counter('aaabbca')
c # Counter({'a': 4, 'b': 2, 'c': 1})c.most_common() # [('a', 4), ('b', 2), ('c', 1)]
c.most_common(2) # [('a', 4), ('b', 2)]Bonus: Counter inherits from dict, getting its methods + operators.