in reply to Delimited File Analysis One-Liner?

My guess is that this would be fastest for your specific example:

perl -nE"$l=index$_,',';$m<$l and $m=$l}{ say $m"

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With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

The start of some sanity?

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Re^2: Delimited File Analysis One-Liner?
by temporal (Pilgrim) on May 01, 2012 at 21:17 UTC

    Thanks BrowserUk, that's a clever way to do it!

    Didn't know that Perl allows you to close the brackets like that, either.

    Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
[reply]
      Didn't know that Perl allows you to close the brackets like that, either.

      Do a super search for "secret operators" and "eskimo greeting".

[reply]
Re^2: Delimited File Analysis One-Liner?
by temporal (Pilgrim) on May 02, 2012 at 15:21 UTC

    Thanks for the tip, BrowserUk. Always fun to learn a new trick.

    I've generalized your code to match any column, where i is the column:

    perl -F, -anE '$m<($x=length $F[i]) and $m=$x}{say $m' file.csv

    I'd still use yours if I'm only looking in the first column. I wonder if there's a way to continue on that same idea (using index) and count delimiters out to a particular column and then save the distance between the most recent delimiters. Probably wouldn't be a one-liner at that point.

    Also, curious about your use of $1. Is it a shell variable? Executing your command as written (in bash) doesn't give me any output, I have to switch the single and double quotes. Then I have to use a different variable, Perl won't let me assign to $1.

    Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
[reply]
[d/l]
      I wonder if there's a way to continue on that same idea (using index) and count delimiters out to a particular column

      No. Beyond the first column, -aF, is about as efficient as it gets.

      Also, curious about your use of $1.

      You need to get a better font! It isn't $1, (one) but rather $l (for length) and $m (for max).

      With any reasonable font they should be distinct, but I see it was a bad chioce for posting here.

      With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
      Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
      "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
      In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

      The start of some sanity?
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

        lol! Well, that explains why I was scratching my head. *goes font hunting*

        Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
[reply]

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