ao-mud/spells/cantrips/max-length

#!/usr/bin/env sh

# This magical spell reveals the maximum length of a list of strings.
# Accepts either a list ("word1 word2 word3" or an array of strings
# Usage: cast_max_length string1 string2 ...

# Define the function to calculate the maximum length of the given strings
max_length() {
  if [ -z "$1" ]; then
    echo "No arguments passed to max_length"
    return 1
  fi
  if [[ "$1" == *" "* ]]; then
    # Argument is a string containing multiple words
    longest=0
    for arg in $1; do
      arg_length=${#arg}
      if [ $arg_length -gt $longest ]; then
        longest=$arg_length
      fi
    done
  else
    # Argument is an array # Todo: This never happens and also doesn't work if it does.
    longest=0
    for arg in "${!1}"; do
      arg_length=${#arg}
      if [ $arg_length -gt $longest ]; then
        longest=$arg_length
      fi
    done
  fi
  if [ "$2" == "-v" ]; then
    echo "Maximum length: $longest"
  fi
  echo $longest
}

max_length "$@"