如何比较复杂的Linux文本文件中的数字？

Question

I have a huge file that looks like this:

1234 4567 3566

2432 434 95054

382 9983 90

with tabs separating the numbers.

I'm new to linux and to BASH and I need to use the terminal (not a script in a other file) to compare all the numbers in the 3rd column.

I tried the grep command but I can't find a way to do everything I want (find the file, open it, go to the 3rd column, find the biggest number). Is it possible to do with only one command? With pipes maybe?

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

It sounds like you want to print the line in your file which has the highest value in the third column. This awk script does that:

awk '$3>max{max=$3;line=$0}END{print line}' file

$3 refers to the third column. If it is greater than the current value of max , update max and set line to the contents of the whole line, $0 . Once the file has been processed, print out the line with the maximum value.

If you only want to find the maximum number and aren't concerned about the rest of the line, the script is slightly simpler:

awk '$3>max{max=$3}END{print max}' file

This simply updates the value of max whenever the value of the third column is higher and prints it once the file has been processed.

Answer 2

Try this :

$ awk '$3>v{v=$3}END{print v}' file
95054