Why is my program printing to only one line instead of a seperate line?

Question

so i'm using this snippet of code:

def print_slow(str):
    for letter in str:
    print letter,
    time.sleep(.1)

from this link on SO: printing slowly (Simulate typing) and if fits my needs. However, my code so far is this:

import time
import random
import sys
def print_slow(str):
   for letter in str:
   print letter,
   time.sleep(.5)
print_slow("MEME QUEST!")
time.sleep(.5)
print_slow("BY XXX XXXXX")

But when I run this code, it prints both snippets of code on the same line. Is there any way to put them on seperate lines?

EDIT: Adding an extra print to the print_slow function worked, thank you.

Remove the comma from `print letter,`. The comma literally tells it to suppress the newline and continue printing on the same line — Cory Kramer, Jul 01 '16 at 19:12
@CoryKramer: that's the point, they *want* that comma there to print things 'slowly' on a line. What is missing is a plain `print` to write the newline. — Martijn Pieters, Jul 01 '16 at 19:14

Martijn Pieters · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-01T19:50:07.950

You are missing a newline; normally print outputs that, but not if you add a , comma at the end.

You could insert an extra blank print between calls to print_slow() to write one:

print_slow("MEME QUEST!")
print
time.sleep(.5)
print_slow("BY XXX XXXXX")
print

You could just add that extra print statement to the function:

def print_slow(str):
    for letter in str:
        print letter,
        time.sleep(.1)
    print

A blank print writes the missing newline.

Alternatively, add a \n newline character to the text you print:

print_slow("MEME QUEST!\n")
time.sleep(.5)
print_slow("BY XXX XXXXX\n")

but take into account the same .1 second delay applies to writing the newline too.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 01 '16 at 19:14

0

You could just simply add a newline character

print_slow("MEME QUEST!\n")

answered Jul 01 '16 at 19:14

ifma

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 01 '16 at 19:22

The comma after your

print letter,

statement is suppressing it from printing a new line.

Try

import time

def print_slow(string):
        for letter in string:
            print letter,
            time.sleep(.1)
        print '\n'

print_slow("hello")
print_slow("world")

I'm sure there is a cleaner way to implement this but this should resolve your problem.

Why is my program printing to only one line instead of a seperate line?

3 Answers3