in reply to Perl - 'count word'

Count lines:
perl -nle '}{print $.' file

Count words:

perl -lane '$c+=@F}{print $c' file

Count files matching a pattern:

perl -le '$_=()=glob(pop);print' '246.56*'

See perlrun for command line switches. See glob. I'll explain that all if you want to know.

--shmem

_($_=" "x(1<<5)."?\n".q·/)Oo.  G°\        /
                              /\_¯/(q    /
----------------------------  \__(m.====·.(_("always off the crowd"))."·
");sub _{s./.($e="'Itrs `mnsgdq Gdbj O`qkdq")=~y/"-y/#-z/;$e.e && print}