Is there a way to clear your printed text in python?

Question

I have wanted for a long time to find out how to clear something like print("example") in python, but I cant seem to find anyway or figure anything out.

print("Hey")
>Hey

Now I need to clear it, and write some new text.

print("How is your day?")

It would print.

Hey

>How is your day?

But I want to clear the "Hey" so the user shouldnt look at both at same time, and it looks kinda messy.

Once you are wrote to`Console` you cannot erase it, when you are holding it in a buffer you may do that. [NOTE] `clear` in `linux` does not erases your written text, rather it `scrolles` up !! — Siva Cn, Oct 25 '13 at 18:15
I think this is what you are looking for http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4810537/how-to-clear-the-screen-in-python — Bartosz Dabrowski, Oct 25 '13 at 18:15
possible duplicate of [clear terminal in python](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2084508/clear-terminal-in-python) — mdml, Oct 25 '13 at 18:18

Games Brainiac · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-16T13:13:49.867

19

import os
os.system('cls')

Or os.system('clear') on unix (mac and linux). If you don't want the scroll up either, then you can do this:

os.system("printf '\033c'") should get rid of scroll back too. Something that works on all systems:

import os
os.system('cls' if os.name == 'nt' else "printf '\033c'")

edited Oct 16 '18 at 13:13

answered Oct 25 '13 at 18:15

Games Brainiac

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`clear` command does not erase or remove the text from console – Siva Cn Oct 25 '13 at 18:17
1

@SivaCn It does for me. – Games Brainiac Oct 25 '13 at 18:20
it also does for me(win7 py2.6)... what OS and python are you using Siva? – Joran Beasley Oct 25 '13 at 18:21
1

Yes, It clears but I can still get when I scroll up, `BUT THE QUESTION IS TO CLEAR` right ? – Siva Cn Oct 25 '13 at 18:24
I'm using `cent OS`, `Ubuntu` and `Linux Mint` with `Python 2.6`, `2.7`, and `3` – Siva Cn Oct 25 '13 at 18:26
@SivaCn Does my latest addition to the answer clean up the buffer? – Games Brainiac Oct 25 '13 at 18:29
@GamesBrainiac, Its great !, I wanted it to be, Even i had the same Question for the long time, sorry for interruption, good learning. could you share some snippets regarding this ? – Siva Cn Oct 25 '13 at 18:30
@Games Im pretty sure in linux without using curses the best you can do is to scroll it .. that escape sequence doesnt work on whatever linux I tested it on – Joran Beasley Oct 25 '13 at 18:30
@GamesBrainiac, It worked!, Could you share some snippets like this ? – Siva Cn Oct 25 '13 at 18:32
@JoelMadsen Just type in the code I wrote into python, and it will clear your screen. – Games Brainiac Oct 25 '13 at 18:33
@JoelMadsen Awesome, if this worked for you, just give me an accept :) – Games Brainiac Oct 25 '13 at 18:38
Would it be possible to prevent its blinking? – alper Nov 22 '21 at 21:30

score 18 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 01 '18 at 11:37

I think this is what you want to do:

take the cursor one line up and delete the line

this can be done like using the code below

import sys
import time

def delete_last_line():
    "Use this function to delete the last line in the STDOUT"

    #cursor up one line
    sys.stdout.write('\x1b[1A')

    #delete last line
    sys.stdout.write('\x1b[2K')


########## FOR DEMO ################
if __name__ == "__main__":
    print("hello")
    print("this line will be delete after 2 seconds")
    time.sleep(2)
    delete_last_line()
####################################

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 22 '21 at 21:47

4

Small addition into @Aniket Navlur 's answer in order to delete multiple lines:

def delete_multiple_lines(n=1):
    """Delete the last line in the STDOUT."""
    for _ in range(n):
        sys.stdout.write("\x1b[1A")  # cursor up one line
        sys.stdout.write("\x1b[2K")  # delete the last line

answered Nov 22 '21 at 21:47

alper

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best answer and most efficient. clear screen has flickering, this one hasnt – alexzander Jan 16 '22 at 16:06

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 16 '22 at 21:29

2

Well I have a temporary way:

print("Hey", end="")
for i in range(4):
    print('\b', end = '')

print("How is your day?")

edited Jan 16 '22 at 21:29

alper

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answered Feb 24 '19 at 18:22

Vicrobot

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you can rewrite `print("some text",end="")` as `print(end="some text")` – Deera Wijesundara Apr 23 '22 at 13:03

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 17 '21 at 11:07

2

The escape character \r (carriage return), means "start printing from beginning of this line". But some of operating systems use it as 'newline'. Following would work in Linux:

import time
import sys
#first text
print('Hey.', end="")
#flush stdout
sys.stdout.flush()
#wait a second
time.sleep(1)
#write a carriage return and new text
print('\rHow is your day?')

edited Feb 17 '21 at 11:07

pfabri

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answered Feb 17 '21 at 10:20

Adam Jenča

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It doesn't mean *start printing from the beginning of this line*. It's more like *return the cursor to the beginning of the current line*. Printing is not involved. Also, if the new string you want to print from the start of the line is shorter than the string already on the screen the excess chars from the old string will stay on the screen. I.e. your two string will be mixed together. – pfabri Feb 17 '21 at 10:34

Is there a way to clear your printed text in python?

5 Answers5

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