fname = raw_input('Enter file name: ') fhand = open(fname) c = dict() for line in fhand: if not line.startswith('From ') : continue pieces = line.split() email = pieces[1] c[email] = c.get(email,0) + 1 bigc = None bige = None for word in c: value = c[word] if bigc == None or value > bigc: bigw = word bigc = value print bigw, bigc