Toolbox Aid

August 12th, 2024 2:00 PM Mr. Q Categories: Command

Description:
The wc (word count) command is used to count the number of lines, words, and bytes (or characters) in a file. It can also be used to count the number of bytes or characters only.

Command:

wc [options] file

Sample Input

file.txt:

Hello world
This is a sample file.

Sample Output:

 2 7 34 file.txt

Explanation:

• 2: Number of lines in the file.
• 7: Number of words in the file.
• 34: Number of bytes (or characters) in the file.

Options:

• -l: Count lines only.
• -w: Count words only.
• -c: Count bytes only.
• -m: Count characters (useful for UTF-8 encoded files).

Example with -l Option:

To count lines only:

wc -l file.txt

Sample Output with -l:

2 file.txt

Example with -w Option:

To count words only:

wc -w file.txt

Sample Output with -w:

7 file.txt

Example with -c Option:

To count bytes only:

wc -c file.txt

Sample Output with -c:

34 file.txt

Example with -m Option:

To count characters (considering multi-byte characters):

wc -m file.txt

Sample Output with -m:

30 file.txt

This command is useful for quickly obtaining file metrics such as size, number of lines, and number of words.