CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-2.7
user3680510
user3680510

Reputation: 277

Terminal - How to overwrite many lines?

I want to overwrite the hello. But when a \n was printed i can't come back to that line. So what do applications do which overwrite many lines like the program htop.

import sys

print 'hello'
print 'huhu',
print '\r\r\rnooooo\r'

Upvotes: 6

Views: 3133

Answers (3)

Bhargav Rao
Bhargav Rao

Reputation: 52151

For Linux and macOS users:

import time
import curses

stdscr = curses.initscr()

stdscr.addstr(0, 0, "Hello")

stdscr.refresh()
time.sleep(5)         # deliberate wait, else will automatically delete output
stdscr.addstr(0, 0, "huhu")
stdscr.refresh()

See other answer for Windows users.

Upvotes: 7

Kevin
Kevin

Reputation: 76244

The colorama third party module has support for changing the position of the cursor, via the "\x1b[?:?H" command string. You can also clear the screen this way.

import colorama
colorama.init()
def put_cursor(x,y):
    print "\x1b[{};{}H".format(y+1,x+1)

def clear():
    print "\x1b[2J"

clear()
put_cursor(0,0)
print "hello"
print "huhu"
#return to first line
put_cursor(0,0)
print "noooooo"

The module appears to do this by importing ctypes and invoking windll.kernel32.SetConsoleCursorPosition. See win32.py, line 58.

Upvotes: 7

Keith
Keith

Reputation: 43044

Print adds a newline. For this it's better to write directly to stdout.

 sys.stdout.write("mystring\r")

Upvotes: -3

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