Bash command to sum a column of numbers [duplicate]
Solution 1:
Using existing file:
paste -sd+ infile | bc
Using stdin:
<cmd> | paste -sd+ | bc
Edit: With some paste implementations you need to be more explicit when reading from stdin:
<cmd> | paste -sd+ - | bc
Options used:
-s (serial) - merges all the lines into a single line
-d - use a non-default delimiter (the character
+
in this case)
Solution 2:
I like the chosen answer. However, it tends to be slower than awk since 2 tools are needed to do the job.
$ wc -l file
49999998 file
$ time paste -sd+ file | bc
1448700364
real 1m36.960s
user 1m24.515s
sys 0m1.772s
$ time awk '{s+=$1}END{print s}' file
1448700364
real 0m45.476s
user 0m40.756s
sys 0m0.287s
Solution 3:
The following command will add all the lines(first field of the awk output)
awk '{s+=$1} END {print s}' filename
Solution 4:
Does two lines count?
awk '{ sum += $1; }
END { print sum; }' "$@"
You can then use it without the superfluous 'cat':
sum < FileWithColumnOfNumbers.txt
sum FileWithColumnOfNumbers.txt
FWIW: on MacOS X, you can do it with a one-liner:
awk '{ sum += $1; } END { print sum; }' "$@"
Solution 5:
[a followup to ghostdog74s comments]
bash-2.03$ uname -sr
SunOS 5.8
bash-2.03$ perl -le 'print for 1..49999998' > infile
bash-2.03$ wc -l infile
49999998 infile
bash-2.03$ time paste -sd+ infile | bc
bundling space exceeded on line 1, teletype
Broken Pipe
real 0m0.062s
user 0m0.010s
sys 0m0.010s
bash-2.03$ time nawk '{s+=$1}END{print s}' infile
1249999925000001
real 2m0.042s
user 1m59.220s
sys 0m0.590s
bash-2.03$ time /usr/xpg4/bin/awk '{s+=$1}END{print s}' infile
1249999925000001
real 2m27.260s
user 2m26.230s
sys 0m0.660s
bash-2.03$ time perl -nle'
$s += $_; END { print $s }
' infile
1.249999925e+15
real 1m34.663s
user 1m33.710s
sys 0m0.650s