Is it possible to have output that disappears after a specified amount of time?

Question

I'm a beginner coder and I'm using python to create a hangman game. I already have written the code for the game but I wanted to have string that is outputted for the user to read that disappears when they have to work out the word. Is there a way to do this or am I overstretching python's boundaries?

Its doable in python... but there are a hundred different choices. You could use `tkinter` built into python to make a GUI. You could use `curses` on a terminal. You could use Windows console API or cook up the terminal escape codes yourself. You could just write the string without newline, use the backspace character and write blank lines. But that makes it a difficult question for SO where we avoid large design issues like this. — tdelaney, Nov 15 '20 at 19:03

anon01 · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-15T19:57:57.733

2

Here is a solution where text disappears after a moment and is replaced by text on the same line. A few notes:

the second print statement is used to overwrite the first with empty characters
this method only works for single line statements
\r behavior may be platform dependent

code:

import time

text = "some text!"
print(text, end="\r")
time.sleep(1)
print(" " * len(text), end="\r")
time.sleep(1)
print("new text!")

edited Nov 15 '20 at 19:57

answered Nov 15 '20 at 19:12

anon01

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I doubt this will will for multiline print statements as-is, but I think is possible. – anon01 Nov 15 '20 at 19:17
Hmmm this doesn't seem to work for me. It just waits 2 seconds, then prints out "new text!". – Aiden Chow Nov 15 '20 at 19:18
I don't know why that would be. What system are you on? Are you running the code from file or interpreter? – anon01 Nov 15 '20 at 19:21
Ok if I replace `print(text, end="\r")` with `print(text, end="")` then it works. I don't know why this would be the case though. – Aiden Chow Nov 15 '20 at 19:23
`"\r"` may be interpreted differently on different systems. Are you on windows by chance? – anon01 Nov 15 '20 at 19:24
Yes. Would that affect anything? – Aiden Chow Nov 15 '20 at 19:25
Escaped characters can be interpreted differently in different shells – anon01 Nov 15 '20 at 19:26

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 15 '20 at 18:59

If you want to clear the whole terminal window:

from os import system, name 
import time
   
def clsScreen():  
    if name == 'nt':  # for Windows OS
        v = system('cls') 
    else: # for Linux/UNIX
        v = system('clear') 

print('Sting appeared to the user') 
sleep(1)
clsScreen()

In case you want to clear a part of the output then that is not possible unless you create a dedicated display window with pygame(maybe)

Is it possible to have output that disappears after a specified amount of time?

2 Answers2