In vim, how can I count the number of characters on each line?
how
to
count
number
of characters?
For example, if I open a file with above text, I want to see counts like below
3
2
5
6
20
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Is vim really a requirement here? – Paul Mar 8 '12 at 5:26
One way to do it:
:for i in range(1, line('$')) | echo i . ': ' . strlen(getline(i)) | endfor
This version shows the line number before the character count.
Another way:
:%!awk '{print length($0)}'
UPDATE: Even shorter (every keystroke counts!):
:%!awk '{print length}'
since I just now noticed that length defaults to entire line.
answered Mar 8 '12 at 12:43
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Seems to replace the current contents of vi. So you might potentially overwrite the original file contents. – Der Hochstapler Mar 8 '12 at 13:11
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1@OliverSalzburg Then, do this:
:%!tee >(awk '{print length($0)}'). This keeps the text. – new123456 Mar 9 '12 at 1:09 -
Pro tip: If you want to sort by line length, change it to
:%!awk '{print length " " $0}, then do:sort n– Cory Klein Jan 9 '13 at 17:51 -
The question was about vim, but just for comparison, here is how you can do that in Vedit:
Repeat(ALL) {
EOL
Num_Type(Cur_Col-1)
Line(1, ERRBREAK)
}
or as one-liner:
Repeat(ALL){ EOL NT(CN-1) L(1, ERRBREAK) }
