How to determine the number of unique column entries in CSV data using Unix

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Assume you have CSV data that looks like the following Bob, Red, 5 Cindy, Blue, 2 Frank, Red, 3 Lisa, Green, 3 and you would like to determine the number of unique colors that appear in column 1. Use the following commands at the Unix Prompt $ export IFS=\",\" $ cat myfile.csv | while read a b c; do echo \"$b\"; done | sort | uniq | wc The result returned is 3. Just delete the commands and pipes one at a time if you want a better understanding. Note the export command sets the delimiter to a comma.

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