unix - count of columns in file

Question

Given a file with data like this (i.e. stores.dat file)

sid|storeNo|latitude|longitude
2|1|-28.03720000|153.42921670
9|2|-33.85090000|151.03274200
         


        

Answer 1

This is usually what I use for counting the number of fields:

head -n 1 file.name | awk -F'|' '{print NF; exit}'