[SOLVED] Counting Python files with bash and awk always returns zero

Issue

I want to get a number of python files on my desktop and I have coded a small script for that. But the awk command does not work as is have expected. script

ls -l | awk '{ if($NF=="*.py") print $NF; }' | wc -l

I know that there is another solution to finding a number of python files on a PC but I just want to know what am i doing wrong here.

Solution

ls -l | awk '{ if($NF=="*.py") print $NF; }' | wc -l

Your code does count of files literally named *.py, you should deploy regex matching and use correct GNU AWK syntax, after fixing that, your code becomes

ls -l | awk '{ if($NF~/[.]py$/) print $NF; }' | wc -l

note [.] which denote literal . and $ denoting end of string. Your code might be further ameloriated, as there is not need to use if here, as pattern-action will do that is

ls -l | awk '$NF~/[.]py$/{ print $NF; }' | wc -l

Morever you might easily implemented counting inside GNU AWK rather than deploying wc -l as follows

ls -l | awk '$NF~/[.]py$/{t+=1}END{print t}'

Here, t is increased by 1 for every describe line, and after all is processed, that is in END it is printed. Observe there is no need to declare t variable in GNU AWK.

Answered By - Daweo

Answer Checked By - David Goodson (WPSolving Volunteer)