How to count the number of words in a string in Bash [duplicate]

Question

I have the following string which contains words separated by spaces

str="word1 word2 word3"

How to count the number of words?

I do not want to use a for loop with counter. I want to do it in one command.

Duplicate of stackoverflow.com/q/638802/3076724 and stackoverflow.com/q/15108229/3076724 — Reinstate Monica Please
– Reinstate Monica Please, Commented Feb 6, 2014 at 10:54

fedorqui · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-06 10:52:21Z

15

You can use wc:

$ wc -w <<< "$str"
3

answered Feb 6, 2014 at 10:52

fedorqui

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Comments

Martin Dinov · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-06 10:51:11Z

4

Try this:

str='word1 word2 word3'
str=( $str )
echo ${#str[@]}

answered Feb 6, 2014 at 10:51

Martin Dinov

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anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-06 10:54:07Z

1

Using awk:

awk '{print NF}' <<< "$str"
3

answered Feb 6, 2014 at 10:54

anubhava

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BMW · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-06 11:20:02Z

0

wc -w is better, here is another way:

 echo $str |tr " " "\n" |wc -l

answered Feb 6, 2014 at 11:20

BMW

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