QBasic character counter - helped by Buff

DECLARE SUB GetWords (st$, wds%)

st$ = "Hello my name is John Doe"
IF RIGHT$(st$, 1) <> " " THEN st$ = st$ + " "
FOR k% = 1 TO LEN(st$)
IF MID$(st$, k%, 1) = " " THEN words% = words% + 1
characters% = characters% + 1
NEXT
PRINT "total characters="; characters%
PRINT "total words="; words%


xst$ = "Hello my name is John Doe"
GetWords xst$, words%
PRINT "words= "; words%

SUB GetWords (st$, wds%)
IF RIGHT$(st$, 1) <> " " THEN st$ = st$ + " "
FOR k% = 1 TO LEN(st$)
IF MID$(st$, k%, 1) = " " THEN words% = words% + 1
characters% = characters% + 1
NEXT
'print "total characters=";characters%
'print "total words=";words%
wds% = words%
END SUB