Extract Maximum and minimum value using awk

Question

How to find maximum and minimum value from the below table using awk command.

20 90 60 30
55 75 80 85
10 15 99 95
55 95 70 20
9  35 85 75
         


        

Answer 1

with gnu awk:

awk '{for(x=1;x<=NF;x++)a[++y]=$x}END{c=asort(a);print "min:",a[1];print "max:",a[c]}'

output:

min: 9
max: 99

without awk:

xargs -n1|sort -n|head or tail -1

e.g.

min:

kent$  echo "20 90 60 30
55 75 80 85
10 15 99 95
55 95 70 20
9  35 85 75"|xargs -n1|sort -n|head -1
9

max:

kent$  echo "20 90 60 30
55 75 80 85
10 15 99 95
55 95 70 20
9  35 85 75"|xargs -n1|sort -n|tail -1
99

you can of course xargs -n1|sort -n then pipe to awk to pick first and last and print in one shot.