UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi all, I have a file that contains characters. How do I get total of spesific character from that file and save the count to a variable for doing for calculation.

data.txt

Code:

1
2
2
2
2
3
3
4
5
6
7
8
5
4
3
4
5
6

i want to get total of 4's character in that file and save it for calculation for axample.

thanks first for your help..

With one character per line, try:

Code:

grep -Fxc 4 file

or

Code:

awk '$1==4{t++} END{print t}' file

--
or for any number of 4's, try:

Code:

tr -cd 4 < file | wc -c

or perhaps: (bash/ksh93/zsh)

Code:

v=$(<file)
v=${v//[!4]}
echo ${#v}

If you ever want to look for the number of strings (not just single characters) matching an extended regular expression with zero or more occurrences of the ERE on each line in a file, try:

Code:

awk -v pat="ERE" '{c+=gsub(pat,"")}END{print c}' data.txt

For example, if you wanted to find the number of occurrences of 4 and 6 in data.txt:

Code:

awk -v pat="[46]" '{c+=gsub(pat,"")}END{print c}' data.txt

which, with your sample input file, produces the output:

Code:

6

If you want to try this on a Solaris/SunOS system, change awk to /usr/xpg4/bin/awk.

How do I get the total of spesific character and make a variable to take in the total spesific character?

---------- Post updated at 09:18 AM ---------- Previous update was at 08:02 AM ----------

How do I get the total of spesific character and make a variable to take in the total spesific character?

You can take any of the commands above and use command substitution:

Code:

var=$(cmd)

or in the case of the last example in post #2, you can assign the result to a variable:

Code:

var=${v#}

Better: var=${#v}