wc stands for word count. As the name implies, it is mainly used for counting purpose. It is used to find out number of lines, word count, byte and characters count in the files specified in the file arguments.

How does wc command work?

The wc command in UNIX is a command line utility for printing newline, word and byte counts for files. It can return the number of lines in a file, the number of characters in a file and the number of words in a file. It can also be combine with pipes for general counting operations.

How do you use wc?

Use the wc command to count the number of lines, words, and bytes in the files specified by the File parameter. If a file is not specified for the File parameter, standard input is used. The command writes the results to standard output and keeps a total count for all named files.