What is the difference between wc -1 < mydata.dat and wc -1 < mydata.dat ?

What is the difference between wc -1 < mydata.dat and wc -1 < mydata.dat ?

To output the number of lines in the mydata.dat file, we use the wc -1 mydata.dat command.

By adding < to create the command wc -1 < mydata.dat, the program opens and reads from the mydata.dat file to process the line count. The program sends the contents of mydata.dat to wc's standard input. This is referred to as redirecting input.

wc -1 < mydata.dat

The output of wc -1 < mydata.dat is 48

That of wc -1 < mydata.dat is 48 config.dat