the following program counts the amount of words in a richtextbox

form controls :

button
richtextbox

all of the control properties are set to default.

paste the text using ctrl+v in the richtextbox and click the button.

Code:

Public Class Form1

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim nEnter As String = "qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm,.1234567890-=\"
        nEnter &= "`~!@#$%^&*()_+|QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM<>?:{}[];'./"
        nEnter &= """" ' the string does not contain enter and space
        Dim wasSpecialChar As Boolean = True
        Dim counter As Integer = 0
        For index = 0 To RichTextBox1.TextLength - 1
            If nEnter.Contains(RichTextBox1.Text(index)) And wasSpecialChar Then
                counter += 1
                wasSpecialChar = False
            ElseIf Not nEnter.Contains(RichTextBox1.Text(index)) Then
                wasSpecialChar = True
            End If
        Next
        MsgBox(counter)
    End Sub
End Class

:sleep: