[SOLVED] Character count of a word is coming wrong.

vikas027 · 06-11-2010, 01:57 AM

Hi All,

I am using RHEL 4.5.

I am trying to count no. of characters in a word but it is coming one more than what it actually should be.

Code:

[linux1@HMLINUX1 tmp]$ a=vikas
[linux1@HMLINUX1 tmp]$ echo $a | wc -c (byte count)
6
[linux1@HMLINUX1 tmp]$ echo $a | wc -m (char count)
6

I can have a work around by subtracting 1 from the output (6-1=5 in this case).
BUT, I am just curious to know, why the character count is coming as 6 and not 5.

druuna · 06-11-2010, 02:00 AM

Hi,

I do think the answer (6) is correct. -c is the byte count, not the character count, which is -m.

Hope this helps.

vikas027 · 06-11-2010, 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by druuna

Hi,

I do think the answer (6) is correct. -c is the byte count, not the character count, which is -m.

Hope this helps.

I guess when you were typing this, I was editing my original post.

Even with "-m", it is giving same thing.

druuna · 06-11-2010, 02:16 AM

Hi,

And that (6 as answer) is correct as well (still early, not really awake yet

).

There's a newline at the end of the string which I do believe is counted by wc (be it -m or -c).

vikas027 · 06-11-2010, 02:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by druuna

Hi,

And that (6 as answer) is correct as well (still early, not really awake yet

).

There's a newline at the end of the string which I do believe is counted by wc (be it -m or -c).

Might be, I also thing hitting an "Enter" may also be counted as a new character.

So, I am left with only option to subtract 1 from the output.

druuna · 06-11-2010, 02:30 AM

Hi,

I'm not able to test it myself atm, but maybe this will work:

wc -m < vitas
or
wc -m < $a

Hope this helps.

colucix · 06-11-2010, 02:31 AM

Indeed the newline character counts for one, as the od command clearly shows:

Code:

$ echo $a | od -c
0000000   v   i   k   a   s  \n
0000006

You might either avoid the newline using option -n of echo, or - better - compute the string length using parameter substitution:

Code:

$ echo -n $a | wc -m
5
$ echo ${#a}
5

vikas027 · 06-11-2010, 03:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colucix

Indeed the newline character counts for one, as the od command clearly shows:

Code:

$ echo $a | od -c
0000000   v   i   k   a   s  \n
0000006

You might either avoid the newline using option -n of echo, or - better - compute the string length using parameter substitution:

Code:

$ echo -n $a | wc -m
5
$ echo ${#a}
5

Great !

I dont have other words.