How do I count the number of rows and columns in a file using bash?

Question

Say I have a large file with many rows and many columns. I\'d like to find out how many rows and columns I have using bash.

Answer 1

You can use bash. Note for very large files in terms of GB, use awk/wc. However it should still be manageable in performance for files with a few MB.

declare -i count=0
while read
do
    ((count++))
done < file    
echo "line count: $count"