Shell script puzzle #1
 

You have a file called a.a

It contains this:

aaaaabbbbb
aaabbb

Make a shell script to count the total numbers of a's in the file...

My answer:

[spoiler][FONT=Courier New]sed 's/a/a\n/g' a.a|grep a|wc -l[/spoiler][/FONT]

My answer is 32 bytes long, can anyone make an equivalent command that is shorter?

PS - You can only use tools that are ordinarily shipped with Linux...

Minor variation with 29 bytes

[SPOILER]sed 's/a/a\n/g' a.a|grep -c a[/SPOILER]

Very nice!

Who can beat 29 bytes?

Minor variation with 28 bytes

[spoiler]sed s/a/a\\n/g a.a|grep -c a[/spoiler]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy]Very nice!

Who can beat 29 bytes?[/QUOTE]
[spoiler]tr -dc a<a.a|wc -c[/spoiler]

18 bytes, not including terminal newline.

Tested on RedHat 7.2, FreeBSD 4.9 and SFU 3.5

Yes, there are Microsofties who know how to program Unix-like systems. :wink:

Paul

[QUOTE=Xyzzy]Very nice!

Who can beat 29 bytes?[/QUOTE]

Six bytes, not including terminal newline.

[spoiler]echo 8[/spoiler]

Yes, it [b]is[/b] cheating and it [b]is[/b] meant as a joke. Don't get too upset.

Paul