Counting the max length of string

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi all,

I have a flat file of 1000 rows. I want to check the length of the 5th column. The one having the longest length , I want to set it as DEFINED PARAMETER.
So later I can check others with that particular number only.

Any ideas ??

2 
awk ' length($5) > len { len=length($5) } END { print len } ' file
3

thanks anbu