histogram

histogram

Display a sorted histogram of the frequency of the input lines.

Usage

histogram < sample.txt

Columns

This program does not columnize the output; rather it uses a single space character as the delimiter between the frequency count and the input lines. If prettified output is desired, one can pipe output to another utility to do that. One such example is my columnize utility.

histogram < sample.txt | columnize

Reverse the Sort for Ascending Order

By default this program sorts the histogram in descending order, from the most frequent to the least frequent token. When provided the -r command line option, it will reverse the sort and the output in ascending order.

histogram -r < sample.txt | columnize

Selecting a Field

By default this program parses each line into a token and strips leading and trailing whitespace, creating a histogram assuming the entire line is the token. When given the -f N command line option, it will select and tokenize the Nth field. For example, -f 1 creates a histogram from the first field in the line.

Specifying a Delimiter

By default when this program is given a -f N command line option to specify a particular field to use, it splits each line by whitespace. When the -d S command line option is given, it uses the provided string as the field delimiter. S may be a string of multiple characters.