Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Programs that analyze word frequency?

If you have access to Linux or Cygwin on Windows, you can get it to tell you just about anything you want to know about your text with a few lines of shell code. Here's one approach. Here's anothe...

posted 8y ago by Joe‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:27:10Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24010
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Joe‭ · 2019-12-08T05:27:10Z (about 5 years ago)
If you have access to Linux or Cygwin on Windows, you can get it to tell you just about anything you want to know about your text with a few lines of shell code. [Here's](http://doofussoftware.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-linux-one-liner-to-count-unique-words.html) one approach.

[Here's](http://www.linuxjournal.com/magazine/work-shell-counting-words-and-letters) another article which explains the process in more detail.

In this case, you would probably first have to copy your text from its native format and then paste it without formatting into a text file so the internal formatting codes, etc. don't interfere with the logic.

The advantage of an approach like this is that, with a little effort, you can get your tool to report anything you want in exactly the format you want it in.

Microsoft is also talking about adding such shell capabilities into an upcoming release of Windows 10.

If you're on a Mac, you probably already have all of the necessary tools installed.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-08-02T22:41:11Z (over 8 years ago)
Original score: 0