How to overwrite the previous print to stdout in python

Question

If I had the following code   for x in range 10        print x   I would get the output of  1 2 etc     What I would like to do is instead of printing a newline  I want to replace the previous value and overwrite it with the new value on the same line

User · Answer

Since I ended up here via Google but am using Python 3, here's how this would work in Python 3:

for x in range(10):
    print("Progress {:2.1%}".format(x / 10), end="\r")

Related answer here: How can I suppress the newline after a print statement?

User · Answer

for x in range 10       time sleep 0 5    shows how its working     print   r     format x   end       time sleep 0 5  is to show how previous output is erased and new output is printed    r  when its at the start of print message   it gonna erase previous output before  new output

User · Answer

Here s a cleaner  more  plug-and-play   version of  Nagasaki45 s answer  Unlike many other answers here  it works properly with strings of different lengths  It achieves this by clearing the line with just as many spaces as the length of the last line printed print  Will also work on Windows   def print statusline msg  str       last msg length   len print statusline last msg  if hasattr print statusline   last msg   else 0     print       last msg length  end   r       print msg  end   r       sys stdout flush      Some say they needed this  I didn t      print statusline last msg   msg   Usage  Simply use it like this   for msg in   Initializing       Initialization successful         print statusline msg      time sleep 1    This small test shows that lines get cleared properly  even for different lengths   for i in range 9  0  -1       print statusline      format i    i      time sleep 0 5

User · Answer

The accepted answer is not perfect  The line that was printed first will stay there and if your second print does not cover the entire new line  you will end up with garbage text    To illustrate the problem save this code as a script and run it  or just take a look    import time  n   100 for i in range 100       for j in range 100           print  Progress   2 1    format j   100   end   r           time sleep 0 01      print  Progress   2 1    format i   100     The output will look something like this   Progress 0 0   Progress 1 0   Progress 2 0   Progress 3 0     What works for me is to clear the line before leaving a permanent print  Feel free to adjust to your specific problem   import time  ERASE LINE     x1b 2K    erase line command n   100 for i in range 100       for j in range 100           print  Progress   2 1    format j   100   end   r           time sleep 0 01      print ERASE LINE    Progress   2 1    format i   100     clear the line first   And now it prints as expected   Progress 0 0  Progress 1 0  Progress 2 0  Progress 3 0

User · Answer

This works on Windows and python 3 6  import time for x in range 10       time sleep 0 5      print str x    r  end

User · Answer

Mike DeSimone answer will probably work most of the time  But     for x in   abc   1       print     r  format x    - gt  1bc   This is because the   r  only goes back to the beginning of the line but doesn t clear the output   EDIT  Better solution  than my old proposal below   If POSIX support is enough for you  the following would clear the current line and leave the cursor at its beginning   print   x1b 2K r     It uses ANSI escape code to clear the terminal line  More info can be found in wikipedia and in this great talk   Old answer  The  not so good  solution I ve found looks like this   last x      for x in   abc   1       print       len str last x       r       print     r  format x       last x   x  - gt  1   One advantage is that it will work on windows too

User · Answer

I had the same question before visiting this thread  For me the sys stdout write worked only if I properly flush the buffer i e   for x in range 10       sys stdout write   r  str x       sys stdout flush     Without flushing  the result is printed only at the end out the script

User · Answer

Try this   import time while True      print  Hi    end   r       time sleep 1      print  Bob   end   r       time sleep 1    It worked for me  The  end   r  part is making it overwrite the previous line   WARNING   If you print out hi  then print out hello using  r  you   ll get hillo because the output wrote over the previous two letters  If you print out hi with spaces  which don   t show up here   then it will output hi  To fix this  print out spaces using  r

User · Answer

Python3  This is what worked for me  If you just use the  010 then it will leave characters  so I tweaked it a bit to make sure it s overwriting what was there  This also allows you to have something before the first print item and only removed the length of the item   print  Here are some strings     end     items     abcd    abcdef    defqrs    lmnop    xyz   for item in items      print item  end         for i in range len item      only moving back the length of the item         print   010  010   end       the trick          time sleep 0 2    so you can see what it s doing

User · Answer

I couldn t get any of the solutions on this page to work for IPython  but a slight variation on  Mike-Desimone s solution did the job  instead of terminating the line with the carriage return  start the line with the carriage return   for x in range 10       print   r 0   format x     Additionally  this approach doesn t require the second print statement

User · Answer

Simple Version One way is to use the carriage return    r   character to return to the start of the line without advancing to the next line  Python 3 for x in range 10       print x  end   r   print    Python 2 7 forward compatible from   future   import print function for x in range 10       print x  end   r   print    Python 2 7 for x in range 10       print     r  format x   print  Python 2 0-2 6 for x in range 10       print   0  r  format x   print  In the latter two  Python 2-only  cases  the comma at the end of the print statement tells it not to go to the next line  The last print statement advances to the next line so your prompt won t overwrite your final output  Line Cleaning If you can   t guarantee that the new line of text is not shorter than the existing line  then you just need to add a    clear to end of line    escape sequence    x1b 1K     x1b    ESC   for x in range 75       print            75 - x   x  end   x1b 1K r   print

User · Answer

I m a bit surprised nobody is using the backspace character  Here s one that uses it   import sys import time  secs   1000  while True      time sleep 1    wait for a full second to pass before assigning a second     secs    1   acknowledge a second has passed      sys stdout write str secs        for i in range len str secs             sys stdout write   b

User · Answer

One more answer based on the prevous answers   Content of pbar py      import sys  shutil  datetime  last line is progress bar False   def print2 print string       global last line is progress bar     if last line is progress bar           delete last line           last line is progress bar False     print print string    def  delete last line        sys stdout write   b b r       sys stdout write     shutil get terminal size  80  20   columns      sys stdout write   b r       sys stdout flush     def update progress bar current  total       global last line is progress bar     last line is progress bar True      completed percentage   round current    total   100       current time datetime datetime now   strftime   m  d  Y- H  M  S       overhead length   len current time str current   13     console width   shutil get terminal size  80  20   columns - overhead length     completed width   round console width   completed percentage   100      not completed width   console width - completed width     sys stdout write   b b r        sys stdout write     gt            -       format current time      completed width   -  not completed width  current                                          completed percentage        sys stdout flush     Usage of script   import time from pbar import update progress bar  print2   update progress bar 45 200  time sleep 1   update progress bar 70 200  time sleep 1   update progress bar 100 200  time sleep 1    update progress bar 130 200  time sleep 1   print2  some text that will re-place current progress bar   time sleep 1   update progress bar 111 200  time sleep 1   print   n     without  n next line will be attached to the end of the progress bar print  built in print function that will push progress bar one line up   time sleep 1   update progress bar 111 200  time sleep 1

User · Answer

Here s my solution  Windows 10  Python 3 7 1  I m not sure why this code works  but it completely erases the original line  I compiled it from the previous answers  The other answers would just return the line to the beginning  but if you had a shorter line afterwards  it would look messed up like hello turns into byelo   import sys  include ctypes if you re on Windows import ctypes kernel32   ctypes windll kernel32 kernel32 SetConsoleMode kernel32 GetStdHandle -11   7   end ctypes  def clearline msg       CURSOR UP ONE     033 K      ERASE LINE     x1b 2K      sys stdout write CURSOR UP ONE      sys stdout write ERASE LINE   r       print msg  end   r     example ig usernames     beyonce   selenagomez   for name in ig usernames      clearline  SCRAPING COMPLETE     name    Output - Each line will be rewritten without any old text showing   SCRAPING COMPLETE  selenagomez   Next line  rewritten completely on same line    SCRAPING COMPLETE  beyonce

User · Answer

Better to overwrite the whole line otherwise the new line will mix with the old ones if the new line is shorter  import time  os for s in   overwrite     the     whole     line         print s ljust os get terminal size   columns - 1   end  quot  r quot       time sleep 1   Had to use columns - 1 on Windows

User · Answer

Suppress the newline and print  r   print 1  print   r2    or write to stdout   sys stdout write  1   sys stdout write   r2

[python] How to overwrite the previous print to stdout in python?

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