Final answer:
The missing code in the student's procedure to count the occurrences of 'val' in a list is 'list.count(val)', which is option d. The count() method is a built-in function in Python that returns the count of how many times a given object occurs in a list.
Step-by-step explanation:
The procedure mentioned is intended to return the number of times a specific value appears in a list. In Python, lists are a type of data structure that can store multiple items. To count the occurrences of a particular element in a list, Python provides a built-in method called count(). The correct option to complete the procedure is d. list.count(val). When count() is called on a list, followed by a value as an argument, it returns an integer representing the number of times that value appears in the list.
Here's an example of how count() is used:
my_list = [1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 3, 4, 2, 1]
val = 2
print(my_list.count(val))
This would output 3, as the value 2 appears three times in my_list. To answer the question, one would replace the placeholder with d. list.count(val) in the provided procedure.