Count Values in a field
 

I have to count the number of values in a field of a file.

for eg. if there is a line in a file

abc:xyz:d

then, I want to the count the number of values in second field. The result must be therefore 3.

I guess this thread should go into the programming subsection.
In what language are you trying to do it?
Have you assembled something till now?

I want a command to do that like awk performs certain manipulations. I think awk will do but don't know how to get it work for this.

So you simply want the total number of characters in the second field on each line?

There are many ways to do something like this, and it might help if you gave us some context to work with. i.e. is this for use in a larger script? If so, show the code you have already so we can help with an integrated solution.

But to give you a simple awk version:

http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/man...-Functions.htm

If you need something more complex, you'll have to provide more details.


Here are a few useful awk references:
http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/Awk.html
http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/man...ode/index.html
http://www.pement.org/awk/awk1line.txt
http://www.catonmat.net/blog/awk-one...ined-part-one/

Another suggestion using bash only. This assumes all lines in the file have the same format as mentioned (multiple fields separated by colon):
Inside the loop you can put everything you need to process the retrieved value. Obviously this strongly depends on your requirement and which is the scripting language that fits it at best.