'wc' command

[srama2]

'wc' command is used to count the lines, words and characters in an inputfile.

Syntax:

wc [-lwcm] input_file

Options:

The following options can be given.

-c count bytes

-w count words

-l count no. of lines

-m count characters

-C same as option 'm'

By default wc will display the no.of lines, words and characters in a given input file.

If multiple files are specified then wc will count the no.of lines, words and characters in each file. It will also dispaly the total no.of lines, words and characters from both files.

Ex: consider the sample.txt file with the below contents

hello this is an example
good morning
welcome to the world of unix !!

The wc command when used on sample.txt will output the following.

$wc sample.txt

3 14 70 sample.txt

Ex: consider another file sample.txt with the following contents

welcome to the world of korn shell programming
unix commands are very powerful
unix shell scripts are equivalent to dos batch files

The wc command when used on sample1.txt will output the following.

$wc sample1.txt

3 22 131 sample1.txt

When both sample.txt and sample1.txt are given as input the following is output.

$wc sample.txt sample1.txt
3 14 70 sample.txt
3 22 131 sample1.txt
6 36 201 total