How to Count the Number of Columns in AWK
- 1). Open a terminal. On Windows, click "Start," select "Run" and type "cmd." On Mac OS X, press "Cmd-Space" and type "Terminal." On Linux or Unix, a terminal icon is located somewhere on the desktop or menu bar.
- 2). Type the following command:
awk '{print NF}'
"NF" stands for "Number of Fields," and typing this command will take you to a prompt where you can type some information. As soon as you hit enter, AWK will tell you how many fields (in this case, words) your information contains. - 3). Type the following to have awk perform the same function on the contents of a text file:
awk '{print NF}' < textfile.txt
Replace "textfile.txt" with a real text file.