How do I count the number of rows and columns in a file using bash?

Question

Say I have a large file with many rows and many columns. I'd like to find out how many rows and columns I have using bash.

Answer 1

Columns: awk '{print NF}' file | sort -nu | tail -n 1

Use head -n 1 for lowest column count, tail -n 1 for highest column count.

Rows: cat file | wc -l or wc -l < file for the UUOC crowd.