Using bash, how can I get the longest line in a file?

Question

$ cat file
12
3241234
123
3775
874
62693289429834
8772168376123

I want to get 62693289429834.

also: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12607776/longest-line-using-awk — kamituel, Sep 23 '13 at 13:45
This is not a duplicate, since he's asking about 1. using bash and 2. getting the line, not the length. — Marco, Jun 25 '19 at 11:11

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 23 '13 at 13:41

2

 sort -V file | tail -n1

works on your example input. I'm not completely sure it will work on other inputs as well but I think so.

answered Sep 23 '13 at 13:41

Jan Matějka

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 23 '13 at 13:45

0

 awk ' { if ( length > x ) { x = length } }END{ print x }' file

answered Sep 23 '13 at 13:45

Fredrik Pihl

2 Answers2