Local variables after loop exit

Question

I am having some issues with local variables after exiting a loop. The variable max ends up with the value 0, despite the code below:

max=0
cat          


        

Answer 1

max=0
while read line
do
    temp=$(echo $line|tr -d "\n"|wc -c)
    if [ $temp -gt $max ]
    then 
        max=$temp
        echo $max
    fi
done