function column_num = file_column_count ( input_file_name )

%*****************************************************************************80
%
%% file_column_count counts the columns in the first line of a file.
%
%  Discussion:
%
%    The file is assumed to be a simple text file.
%
%    Most lines of the file are presumed to consist of COLUMN_NUM words,
%    separated by spaces.  There may also be some blank lines, and some 
%    comment lines, which have a "#" in column 1.
%
%    The routine tries to find the first non-comment non-blank line and
%    counts the number of words in that line.
%
%    If all lines are blanks or comments, it goes back and tries to analyze
%    a comment line.
%
%  Licensing:
%
%    This code is distributed under the MIT license. 
%
%  Modified:
%
%    08 February 2010
%
%  Author:
%
%    John Burkardt
%
%  Input:
%
%    string INPUT_FILE_NAME, the name of the file.
%
%  Output:
%
%    integer COLUMN_NUM, the number of columns in the file.
%

%
%  Open the file.
%
  input_unit = fopen ( input_file_name );

  if ( input_unit < 0 ) 
    fprintf ( 1, '\n' );
    fprintf ( 1, 'FILE_COLUMN_COUNT - Error!\n' );
    fprintf ( 1, '  Could not open the file "%s".\n', input_file_name );
    error ( 'FILE_COLUMN_COUNT - Error!' );
  end
%
%  Read one line, but skip blank lines and comment lines.
%  Use FGETL so we drop the newline character!
%
  got_one = false;

  while ( true )

    line = fgetl ( input_unit );

    if ( line == -1 )
      break;
    end

    if ( s_len_trim ( line ) == 0 )

    elseif ( line(1) == '#' )

    else
      got_one = true;
      break;
    end

  end

  fclose ( input_unit );

  if ( ~ got_one ) 
    fprintf ( 1, '\n' );
    fprintf ( 1, 'FILE_COLUMN_COUNT - Warning!\n' );
    fprintf ( 1, '  The file does not seem to contain any data.\n' );
    column_num = -1;
    return
  end

  column_num = s_word_count ( line );

  return
end
