Find number of occurences of a string/character in a file 1

[bansalhimanshu]

I need to find the count of a character or a set of characters in a file. Is there a unix command for that?

Like for given file I need to find out number of occurences of "af":
afbcd efg abef akljklj jklj ljlj
ljlkj jflja fjklja j ljkfaj jkj
jljaf jflaj jafj;ajj;jj jlkj;

 

[Annihilannic]

Here's one way:

[tt]awk -F af '{tot+=NF-1}END{print tot}' input[/tt]

Annihilannic.

 

[bansalhimanshu]

Thanks Annihilannic, it was very really good. This script although does not work for searching for count of word. Can you write similar script for a word as well.

Are you aware if there is any unix inbuild command for this purpose.

 

[PHV]

In a ksh-like shell:
w="word"; f=/path/to/input
echo $w appears $(($(cat $f | wc -w)-$(sed "s!$w!!g" $f | wc -w))) times in $f


Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ181-2886

 

[Annihilannic]

This script although does not work for searching for count of word.

What do you mean? Can you give an example?

If you only want to match whole words (i.e. "af" is counted, but "after" is not, for example) then PHV's solution is better.

I get a result of '3' for the sample data you provided, which looks correct to me.

Annihilannic.