Can you hide code cell outputs in Google Colab?

Question

Is there a way to hide a single code cell's output in Google Colab?

No one needs to see the sea of pip logs when we install things:

If you look at the screenshot you'll see I tried to apply one of the solutions from this similar Stack Overflow question: https://stackoverflow.com/a/48084050/1762493

I tried applying TagRemovePreprocessor.remove_single_output_tags as a #comment, a @@Magic, and a !command but those don't work with this line.

I checked Colab's "Welcome" and "Resource" notebooks but didn't notice anything there for deeper notebook settings: https://colab.research.google.com/notebooks/welcome.ipynb

Is this even possible?

score 60 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 19 '19 at 01:08

60

In this case you can just use

!pip install -q gwpy

In general, you can start the cell with %%capture

%%capture
# the rest of your code

answered Oct 19 '19 at 01:08

korakot

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This `%%capture` is what answers the title of the question - the tittle is general, although the example in the content of the question is specific to `pip`. – Martin Apr 24 '21 at 12:10

score 29 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 18 '19 at 20:03

29

I found this answer and applied it successfully: https://serverfault.com/a/41968/328943

Simply adding &> /dev/null to the tail of any command will silence its output outside of any errors that may arise.

Like so:

!pip install gwpy &> /dev/null

answered Oct 18 '19 at 20:03

Mikeumus

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this does not work for % commands – o17t H1H' S'k Dec 11 '21 at 23:15

score 14 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 20 '21 at 14:33

14

This can be done by adding --quiet at the end. Thus for your case

!pip install gwpy --quiet

answered Apr 20 '21 at 14:33

DaCard

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score 10 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 09 '22 at 03:27

10

Just select the cell and press Ctrl+ M O. This will hide the output of the cell. This option is also available under the view tab.

answered Apr 09 '22 at 03:27

Vikash Kumar

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Thanks! This feels like the only answer to the actual question. What a confusing UI... – ShawnFumo Apr 25 '23 at 17:43
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Thank you, but still my answer didn't qualify as an accepted answer :( – Vikash Kumar May 03 '23 at 12:28

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 26 '21 at 13:28

Two ways:

Manage colab notebook by splitting it into sections, which can hide group of cells together with output. For instance, at the beginning I have "INIT" section, which loads pip's and necessary data from disk. One click, and initialized notebook is ready for work.
Stable code I hide with snippet at the beginning of each cell.

#@title 'What does it do'

If needed, output can be cleared too.

Other useful snippets can be found here

Can you hide code cell outputs in Google Colab?

5 Answers5