# What does posts.word\_count column mean in the database?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-posts-word-count-column-mean-in-the-database/37719
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [11 januari 2016 om 01:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-posts-word-count-column-mean-in-the-database/37719 "2016-01-11T01:02:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@meglio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/meglio)
#### Post date: [11 januari 2016 om 01:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-posts-word-count-column-mean-in-the-database/37719/1 "2016-01-11T01:02:38Z")
I need word count per topic for a badge query.
I found the `word_count` column in the `posts` table, but it seems not what I need.
For instance, this raw text:
> так тут і питання, що якщо без вакцин ніяк, то обійдусь без кролів. Але є в деяких людей позитивний досвід, 3 роки без хвороб і вакцин один з них. Тримають в ямі.
Has a `word_count` = 1.
So, it is either a bug in how word counting works, or the column is simply supposed to do something else.
Please advise.
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [11 januari 2016 om 01:27 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-posts-word-count-column-mean-in-the-database/37719/2 "2016-01-11T01:27:54Z")
AFAIK `word_count` is the site setting used for the “too short” modal, not a count of the words in a post.
I doubt that data exists. Not that it couldn’t get got, but I fear it would be a massive resource hog to do retro.
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### Author:  [@meglio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/meglio)
#### Post date: [11 januari 2016 om 01:32 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-posts-word-count-column-mean-in-the-database/37719/3 "2016-01-11T01:32:00Z")
Not sure how a site setting is related to a column in the `posts` table.
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### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [11 januari 2016 om 09:13 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-posts-word-count-column-mean-in-the-database/37719/4 "2016-01-11T09:13:45Z")
“`word_count`” is computed with “`raw.scan(/\w+/).size`” which unfortunately doesn’t work properly on non-latin sentences… ☹
I’m thinking of replacing it with “`raw.scan(/[[:word:]]+/).size`” which returns **32** for your example sentence. Is that correct?
```ruby
["так", "тут", "і", "питання", "що", "якщо", "без", "вакцин", "ніяк", "то", "обійдусь", "без", "кролів", "Але", "є", "в", "деяких", "людей", "позитивний", "досвід", "3", "роки", "без", "хвороб", "і", "вакцин", "один", "з", "них", "Тримають", "в", "ямі"]
```
**EDIT:** FYI this value is used to compute the “`read_time`” of the topic 😉
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### Author:  [@meglio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/meglio)
#### Post date: [11 januari 2016 om 09:29 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-posts-word-count-column-mean-in-the-database/37719/5 "2016-01-11T09:29:52Z")
Your fixed example looks good!
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### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [11 januari 2016 om 10:16 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-posts-word-count-column-mean-in-the-database/37719/6 "2016-01-11T10:16:50Z")
Here’s the fix 🌻
>
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### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [11 januari 2016 om 10:16 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-posts-word-count-column-mean-in-the-database/37719/7 "2016-01-11T10:16:53Z")