Re: how-many to number?

[rgb]

>     (how-many "\\b\\w+\\b" (point-min) (point-max))
>
> returns a string like "88 occurrences", but how can I get at the
> integer 88 instead?  I would then want to do some simple arithmetic on
> it.

C-h f how-many <ret>

Print and return number of matches for regexp following point.
When called from Lisp and interactive is omitted or nil, *just return
the number, do not print it*; if interactive is t, the function behaves
in all respects has if it had been called interactively.