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Tally[list]

tallies the elements in list, listing all distinct elements together with their multiplicities.

Tally[list,test]

uses test to determine whether pairs of elements should be considered equivalent, and gives a list of the first representatives of each equivalence class, together with their multiplicities.

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Tally

Tally[list]

tallies the elements in list, listing all distinct elements together with their multiplicities.

Tally[list,test]

uses test to determine whether pairs of elements should be considered equivalent, and gives a list of the first representatives of each equivalence class, together with their multiplicities.

Details

  • Tally[list] lists distinct elements in the order they appear in list.
  • Tally[list] is equivalent to Tally[list,SameQ].

Examples

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Basic Examples  (2)

Obtain tallies for a list of symbols:

Wolfram Language code: Tally[{a, a, b, a, c, b, a}]

Count the elements of a list having the same head:

Wolfram Language code: Tally[{f[a], f[w, x, y], p, f[a, b], q}, Head[#1] === Head[#2]&]

Scope  (3)

Results are returned in order of first occurrence in the list:

Wolfram Language code: Tally[{b, a, b, a, c, b, a}]

Count the instances of randomly generated integers:

Wolfram Language code: Tally[RandomInteger[10, 50]]

Elements of the list can be any expression:

Wolfram Language code: Tally[{{a, b}, {w, x, y, z}, E, {w, x, y, z}, E}]

Applications  (1)

Count occurrences of characters in a string:

Wolfram Language code: s = "Tally[list] lists distinct elements in the order they appear in list.";
Wolfram Language code: Tally[Characters[s]]

Properties & Relations  (5)

Elements with highest frequencies are given by Commonest:

Wolfram Language code: Tally[{b, a, c, b, a, c, b, a}]
Wolfram Language code: Commonest[{b, a, c, b, a, c, b, a}]

A sorted Tally is equivalent to a list of counts for the Union:

Wolfram Language code: Sort[Tally[{b, a, c, b, a, c, b, a}]]
Wolfram Language code: Map[{#, Count[{b, a, c, b, a, c, b, a}, #]}&, Union[{b, a, c, b, a, c, b, a}]]

Tally is a discrete analog of BinCounts:

Wolfram Language code: data = RandomReal[10, 20]
Wolfram Language code: Tally[Ceiling[data]]//Sort
Wolfram Language code: BinCounts[data, {0, 10}]

Counts[list] returns an association in which values are the tallies of their keys:

Wolfram Language code: Counts[{b, a, c, b, a, c, b, a}]
Wolfram Language code: Tally[{b, a, c, b, a, c, b, a}]

Use the second argument of Tally to construct its corresponding by-function:

Wolfram Language code: tallyBy[list_, f_] := Tally[list, f[#1] === f[#2]&]

Count odd and even numbers in a list:

Wolfram Language code: tallyBy[{1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 1}, EvenQ]
Wolfram Research (2007), Tally, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Tally.html.

Text

Wolfram Research (2007), Tally, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Tally.html.

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2007. "Tally." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Tally.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2007). Tally. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Tally.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2026_tally, author="Wolfram Research", title="{Tally}", year="2007", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Tally.html}", note=[Accessed: 13-June-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2026_tally, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={Tally}, year={2007}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Tally.html}, note=[Accessed: 13-June-2026]}