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this works! G-man, you are the man. thx

QY Luo
– QY Luo

2014-09-15 18:04:03 +00:00
Commented Sep 15, 2014 at 18:04
@StéphaneChazelas: (1) “Note that you've got no guarantee of order with for (i in max) …” Good point. (2) “That would also cover for columns with only empty fields.” Huh? My current solution handles columns with only empty fields.

G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'
– G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'

2014-09-15 20:22:36 +00:00
Commented Sep 15, 2014 at 20:22
@StéphaneChazelas: I applied your suggestion, however there is nothing returned. Here is the code, am I making any mistake? awk -F, 'NR!=1 { for (i=1; i<=NF; i++) if (max[i] < length($i)) max[i] = length($i) } END { for (i=1; i<=max_NF; i++) printf "%-2d| %d\n", i, max[i] }' 2014-07-08.csv

QY Luo
– QY Luo

2014-09-15 21:09:27 +00:00
Commented Sep 15, 2014 at 21:09
@QYLuo: You need to add code to set max_NF; see my edit.

G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'
– G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'

2014-09-15 21:16:47 +00:00
Commented Sep 15, 2014 at 21:16
regarding empty columns, yes, sorry, I had overlooked the fact that accessing max[i] instantiates the array element. Note that length(max) will give you max_NF in GNU awk (but GNU awk only).

Stéphane Chazelas
– Stéphane Chazelas

2014-09-15 21:43:34 +00:00
Commented Sep 15, 2014 at 21:43

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