How to get those lines which have higher length among all the lines in the file using awk command

Question

I want that line from the file which have highest length among all the lines using awk command.

What is your definition of "highest length"? You say you want multiple lines, does that mean like "Top 5 highest length"? — jesse_b, Apr 28 '18 at 14:33
I read it as “if there’s a tie, all the longest lines” — Jeff Schaller, Apr 28 '18 at 14:34
No I only want that "line which has higher length among all the lines" and "if there is tie then all the longest line" — Shah Honey, Apr 28 '18 at 15:24
"higher" is a comparative word, and as such needs qualification. Do you mean "highest", i.e. the "longest line or joint-longest lines"? — roaima, Apr 28 '18 at 15:33
@Shah, if the lines in the file were "ab", "cd", and "e", what is your expected result? — Jeff Schaller, Apr 28 '18 at 16:13
there are other solutions in that question that handle more than one line with max length... in gawk as well as other tools — Sundeep, Apr 28 '18 at 16:20

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 28 '18 at 15:35

0

awk '{ if (length($0)>maxlength) { maxlength=length($0); longest_line=$0; } };
     END { print longest_line; }' inputfile

answered Apr 28 '18 at 15:35

Hauke Laging

steve · Answer 2 · 2018-04-28T15:50:12.000

0

Check length of line (if no arguments passed to the length function it uses $0, the whole line).

Where length is greater than variable x, set x to the length. And set variable a to the contents of the line.

Finally, on reaching end of file, print the contents of variable a.

awk 'length>x{x=length;a=$0}END{print a}' inputfile

edited Apr 28 '18 at 15:50

answered Apr 28 '18 at 15:38

steve

2 Answers2