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Date:      Sun, 31 Mar 2002 22:56:26 +0200
From:      Paul Everlund <tdv94ped@cs.umu.se>
To:        Eric Boucher <eric_boucher60@yahoo.com>
Cc:        FreeBSD <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: exact length of a line in a file with the read command
Message-ID:  <3CA777FA.ED28BE07@cs.umu.se>
References:  <20020331202713.66909.qmail@web9401.mail.yahoo.com>
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Eric Boucher wrote:
> 
> Hi everyone,
> I have this problem:
> I want to know the exact length of each line in a
> file. But it seems that when the file begin or end
> with a space caracter of a tab caracter, the "read"
> command in bourne shell delete them and return me only
> what begin with a letter and end with a letter. So
> when I try to know the exact length of a file (I tried
> with both lenght command from "expr" and "nawk"). So
> if for example, a line is like this (note: <space>
> mean the real space caracter and <tab> the tab
> caracter)
> <space>toto<tab>
> the read return me only:
> toto
> which is of length = 4
> but it is suppose to be of length = 6
> 
> The same thing append if the space or the tab caracter
> are at the end of a line.
> I also tried to make IFS="", so the there is no field
> seperator, but it doesn't seems to work too.
> Can somebody help me?
> Thanks

Copy this little program into an ordinary text file:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
  FILE *f;
  char c;
  int row;
  int row_chars;

  if(argc != 2)
  {
    printf("Usage: %s count_chars_for_each_row_in_this_file\n", argv[0]);
    return 1;
  }

  if((f = fopen(argv[1], "r")) == NULL)
  {
    printf("File %s not found.\n", argv[1]);
    return 1;
  }

  row = 1;
  row_chars = 0;
  while((c = getc(f)) != EOF)
  {
    if(c == '\n')
    {
      printf("Row: %d / Number of chars: %d\n", row, row_chars);
      row++;
      row_chars = 0;
    }
    row_chars++;
  }
  fclose(f);
  return 0;
}

Then save it as 'name.c', where name is the name you want the program
to have, for example: count_chars.c

Then type the following:

# cc -o name name.c

Now you should be able to write at the prompt:

# ./name file

File is the text file where you want to count the chars for each row.

Maybe too much for solving the problem, but it worked right now when
I did test it. Use it on your own risk though. :-)

Best regards,
Paul

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