def estimate_maximum_read_length(fastq_file, quality_format="fastq-sanger",
                                 nreads=1000):
    """
    estimate average read length of a fastq file
    """
    in_handle = SeqIO.parse(open_fastq(fastq_file), quality_format)
    lengths = []
    for _ in range(nreads):
        try:
            lengths.append(len(next(in_handle).seq))
        except StopIteration:
            break
    in_handle.close()
    return max(lengths)
estimate average read length of a fastq file