bash and awk: functions and aliases for counting columns in tab-, comma-, and space-delimited files. Goes nicely in .bashrc/.bash_profile.

number_of_columns.sh

function tab_ncol {
    awk 'BEGIN {FS="\t"} ; END{print NF}' $1;
}
alias tncol='tab_ncol' 

function comma_ncol {
    awk 'BEGIN {FS=","} ; END{print NF}' $1;
}
alias cncol='comma_ncol' 

function space_ncol {
    awk 'BEGIN {FS=" "} ; END{print NF}' $1;
}
alias sncol='space_ncol'