How do I read in a text file as list and use that list variable in a function?

Question

I am trying to call text in a text file which is in the format of - 'word1', 'word2', etc. into a variable and use that variable within a function below. The reason I want to call the words from a text file into a variable within the code is because there are a large amount of words. I get an error message below when I run the code I have so far. The goal is to use the words in the text file as a variable in my code and then use that variable in my function. Any help is appreciated.

Code:

# read text into variable
with open('text.txt') as f:
    variable=f.read()

# declarations
    
ser = df['Comments']
search_words1 = variable
l2 = []

# I want to count the words in df['Comments'] based on search_words1 variable and create dataframe

def count(search_words1):
    for i in search_words1:
        c = ser[(ser.str.contains(i))].count()
        l2.append(c)
    return pd.DataFrame({'Comments':search_words1, 'Count':l2})

# Call function and sort

twords=count(search_words1).sort_values(by='Count',ascending=False)

# graph results

twords.plot(kind='barh',x='Comments',figsize=(5,5),fontsize=14, title ='2021 Comments Common words')

Error:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
error                                     Traceback (most recent call last)
C:\Users\HECTOR~1.HER\AppData\Local\Temp/ipykernel_2560/3721059552.py in <module>
     21 # Call function and sort
     22 
---> 23 twords=count(search_words1).sort_values(by='Count',ascending=False)
     24 
     25 # graph results

C:\Users\HECTOR~1.HER\AppData\Local\Temp/ipykernel_2560/3721059552.py in count(search_words1)
     15 def count(search_words1):
     16     for i in search_words1:
---> 17         c = ser[(ser.str.contains(i))].count()
     18         l2.append(c)
     19     return pd.DataFrame({'Comments':search_words1, 'Count':l2})

C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pandas\core\strings\accessor.py in wrapper(self, *args, **kwargs)
    114                 )
    115                 raise TypeError(msg)
--> 116             return func(self, *args, **kwargs)
    117 
    118         wrapper.__name__ = func_name

C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pandas\core\strings\accessor.py in contains(self, pat, case, flags, na, regex)
   1151         dtype: bool
   1152         """
-> 1153         if regex and re.compile(pat).groups:
   1154             warnings.warn(
   1155                 "This pattern has match groups. To actually get the "

C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\re.py in compile(pattern, flags)
    250 def compile(pattern, flags=0):
    251     "Compile a regular expression pattern, returning a Pattern object."
--> 252     return _compile(pattern, flags)
    253 
    254 def purge():

C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\re.py in _compile(pattern, flags)
    302     if not sre_compile.isstring(pattern):
    303         raise TypeError("first argument must be string or compiled pattern")
--> 304     p = sre_compile.compile(pattern, flags)
    305     if not (flags & DEBUG):
    306         if len(_cache) >= _MAXCACHE:

C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\sre_compile.py in compile(p, flags)
    762     if isstring(p):
    763         pattern = p
--> 764         p = sre_parse.parse(p, flags)
    765     else:
    766         pattern = None

C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\sre_parse.py in parse(str, flags, state)
    946 
    947     try:
--> 948         p = _parse_sub(source, state, flags & SRE_FLAG_VERBOSE, 0)
    949     except Verbose:
    950         # the VERBOSE flag was switched on inside the pattern.  to be

C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\sre_parse.py in _parse_sub(source, state, verbose, nested)
    441     start = source.tell()
    442     while True:
--> 443         itemsappend(_parse(source, state, verbose, nested + 1,
    444                            not nested and not items))
    445         if not sourcematch("|"):

C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\lib\sre_parse.py in _parse(source, state, verbose, nested, first)
    834             p = _parse_sub(source, state, sub_verbose, nested + 1)
    835             if not source.match(")"):
--> 836                 raise source.error("missing ), unterminated subpattern",
    837                                    source.tell() - start)
    838             if group is not None:

error: missing ), unterminated subpattern at position 0