I tried copying the help file example for soundfiler, but my soundfiler keeps outputting the sample rate of the file, not the total number of samples read, unlike the example does and the documentation says it should.

(I know the output is not the total number of samples because I've used different files and it keeps outputting 44104.)

Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong?

@Faranta 44104 is not the samplerate........ as it has to be 44100.
[soundfiler] is reporting the number of samples added to the table, which you must have created with a size of 44100 (1 second) and added 4 samples for guard points.
You should add the "resize" message to your read message like this....

[read -resize sample.wav sample_table(

And then the table will always be adjusted to the length of the sample.
David.