How to clear the terminal screen in Rust after a new line is printed?

Question

I have printed some text using println! and now I need to clear the terminal and write the new text instead of the old. How can I clear all the current text from terminal?

I have tried this code, but it only clears the current line and 1 is still in the output.

fn main() {
    println!("1");
    print!("2");
    print!("\r");
}

This is no duplicate! This is asking for a way to clear the terminal. The linked "duplicate" is about clearing the current line. The question also states that clearing the current line is not helpful. — itmuckel, Oct 13 '17 at 22:41

score 58 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 05 '21 at 17:59

58

You can send a control character to clear the terminal screen.

fn main() {
    print!("{}[2J", 27 as char);
}

Or to also position the cursor at row 1, column 1:

print!("{esc}[2J{esc}[1;1H", esc = 27 as char);

edited Jan 05 '21 at 17:59

Shepmaster

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answered Jan 17 '16 at 09:53

minghan

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A simpler way: `print!("\x1B[2J");` – Pavel Strakhov Dec 18 '19 at 15:12
@PavelStrakhov, that though wont position the cursor to the very top. But i'ts way much simpler if compared to the first. – iamcastelli Jun 30 '20 at 08:53
1

@iamcastelli the second one is basically the same as the first one, just with `\x1b[1;1H` added to the end! The `\x1b[2J` clears the screen and `\x1b[1;1H` sets the cursor position to (1;1) :) – somerandomdev49 May 05 '22 at 12:33
What operating systems / terminal environments does this work or not work in? – alter_igel Sep 02 '23 at 20:33

score 30 · Answer 2 · edited May 30 '20 at 13:35

30

print!("\x1B[2J\x1B[1;1H");

This will clear the screen and put the cursor at first row & first col of the screen.

edited May 30 '20 at 13:35

Markus

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answered May 30 '20 at 11:23

Muhammad Tariq Baig

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score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 01 '21 at 21:45

Solutions provided by the upvoted answers did not work the way I wanted to. The \x1B[2J\x1B[1;1H sequency only scrolls down the terminal so it actually hides the content and does not clear it. As I wanted to run and infinite loop that re-renders the content shown to the user, this was problem since the scrollbar of my terminal window was shrinking with every "tick".

Inspired from Clear a terminal screen for real I am using

print!("{esc}c", esc = 27 as char);

which works great for me. There might be some drawback on other systems than I use (Ubuntu), I do not know that.

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 05 '21 at 18:00

2

Try this in the Linux or macOS terminal:

std::process::Command::new("clear").status().unwrap();

In Windows one:

std::process::Command::new("cls").status().unwrap();

This basically sends the "clear" command to terminal.

edited Jan 05 '21 at 18:00

Shepmaster

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answered Jan 05 '21 at 17:37

moloko824

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This doesn't actually have the desired effect. – amyiris Mar 08 '21 at 01:37

Claudio Fsr · Answer 5 · 2023-09-02T20:12:20.457

See the precise answer at cant-run-a-system-command-in-windows given by Vallentin:

use std::{
    error::Error,
    process::Command,
};

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn Error>> {

    clear_terminal_screen();
    println!("Hello World!");

    Ok(())
}

Such that:

pub fn clear_terminal_screen() {
    if cfg!(target_os = "windows") {
        Command::new("cmd")
            .args(["/c", "cls"])
            .spawn()
            .expect("cls command failed to start")
            .wait()
            .expect("failed to wait");
    } else {
        Command::new("clear")
            .spawn()
            .expect("clear command failed to start")
            .wait()
            .expect("failed to wait");
    };
}

See the Rust Playground.

Your answer could be improved by adding more information on what the code does and how it helps the OP. — Tyler2P, Feb 23 '23 at 11:29

How to clear the terminal screen in Rust after a new line is printed?

5 Answers5