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Tip #741   Find the longest line in a file

This is how we can find the length of the longest line in a file. 

awk ' { if ( length > L ) { L=length} }END{ print L}' file.txt

Sample output:
36

We can also print the longest line along with the length: 

awk ' { if ( length > L ) { L=length ;s=$0 } }END{ print L,"\""s"\"" }' file.txt

Sample output:
36 "longest line in the file is this one"
 
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