maxlen = 0; listlen= 0; fid = fopen('unixdict.txt','r'); while ~feof(fid) str = fgetl(fid); if any(diff(abs(str))<0) continue; end; if length(str)>maxlen, list = {str}; maxlen = length(str); elseif length(str)==maxlen, list{end+1} = str; end; end fclose(fid); printf('%s\n',list{:});