How can I overwrite/print over the current line in Windows command line?

Question

On Unix, I can either use \r (carriage return) or \b (backspace) to overwrite the current line (print over text already visible) in the shell.

Can I achieve the same effect in a Windows command line from a Python script?

I tried the curses module but it doesn't seem to be available on Windows.

My [question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/51212/how-to-write-a-download-progress-indicator-in-python) about a Python Download Progress Indicator might be helpful. — cschol, Jan 21 '09 at 13:55
Does this answer your question? [Print in one line dynamically](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3249524/print-in-one-line-dynamically) — Elikill58, May 02 '23 at 06:18

score 35 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 04 '13 at 10:50

35

yes:

import sys
import time

def restart_line():
    sys.stdout.write('\r')
    sys.stdout.flush()

sys.stdout.write('some data')
sys.stdout.flush()
time.sleep(2) # wait 2 seconds...
restart_line()
sys.stdout.write('other different data')
sys.stdout.flush()

edited Dec 04 '13 at 10:50

alberto

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answered Jan 21 '09 at 14:15

nosklo

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12

If second data is shorter than first, first data's characters are left on console – Hilal Aug 09 '16 at 12:19

adho12 · Answer 2 · 2014-11-16T22:23:44.803

22

I know this is old, but i wanted to tell my version (it works on my PC in the cmd, but not in the idle) to override a line in Python 3:

>>> from time import sleep
>>> for i in range(400):
>>>     print("\r" + str(i), end="")
>>>     sleep(0.5)

EDIT: It works on Windows and on Ubuntu

edited Nov 16 '14 at 22:23

answered Nov 15 '14 at 23:42

adho12

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Count Mac OS in – eggmatters Jul 31 '20 at 17:48
Still no solution for IDLE? – PouJa Nov 12 '20 at 19:29

score 14 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 06 '16 at 09:06

14

import sys 
import time

for i in range(10):
    print '\r',         # print is Ok, and comma is needed.
    time.sleep(0.3)
    print i,
    sys.stdout.flush()  # flush is needed.

And if on the IPython-notebook, just like this:

import time
from IPython.display import clear_output

for i in range(10):
    time.sleep(0.25)
    print(i)
    clear_output(wait=True)

http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/ipython/ipython/blob/master/examples/notebooks/Animations%20Using%20clear_output.ipynb

edited Oct 06 '16 at 09:06

Raffael

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answered Feb 10 '14 at 08:28

Honghe.Wu

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1

ipython notebook/jupyter is what i was looking for! – dmeu Aug 13 '15 at 14:28

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 27 '14 at 16:25

I just had this problem. You can still use \r, even in Windows Command Prompt, however, it only takes you back to the previous linebreak (\n).

If you do something like this:

cnt = 0
print str(cnt)
while True:
    cnt += 1
    print "\r" + str(cnt)

You'll get:

That's because \r only goes back to the last line. Since you already wrote a newline character with the last print statement, your cursor goes from the beginning of a new empty line to the beginning of the same new empty line.

To illustrate, after you print the first 0, your cursor would be here:

0
| # <-- Cursor

When you \r, you go to the beginning of the line. But you're already on the beginning of the line.

The fix is to avoid printing a \n character, so your cursor is on the same line and \r overwrites the text properly. You can do that with print 'text',. The comma prevents the printing of a newline character.

cnt = 0
print str(cnt),
while True:
    cnt += 1
    print "\r" + str(cnt),

Now it will properly rewrite lines.

Note that this is Python 2.7, hence the print statements.

The newline-avoidance exactly fixed my problem, thanks! Just as an addition, in Python 3 one can use `print(msg, end=' ')` to avoid newlines. — Thomas Lang, May 14 '20 at 07:15

Fahri Güreşçi · Answer 5 · 2021-09-17T11:00:41.200

6

Easy method:

import sys
from time import sleep
import os

#print("\033[y coordinate;[x coordinateH Hello")
os.system('cls')
sleep(0.2)
print("\033[1;1H[]")
sleep(0.2)
print("\033[1;1H  []")
sleep(0.2)
print("\033[1;1H    []")
sleep(0.2)
print("\033[1;1H      []")
sleep(0.2)
print("\033[1;1H        []")
sleep(0.2)
print("\033[1;1H      []")
sleep(0.2)
print("\033[1;1H    []")
sleep(0.2)
print("\033[1;1H  []")
sleep(0.2)
print("\033[1;1H[]")
sleep(0.2)

edited Sep 17 '21 at 11:00

answered Aug 01 '16 at 20:27

Fahri Güreşçi

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but it keeps the old content visible ... – Mahrkeenerh May 10 '22 at 11:24
Yes. It just give you ability for character location control. You must use more space character for overwrite. – Fahri Güreşçi May 12 '22 at 14:17
There are very good libraries in python that show percentiles and better coloring and writing support. – Fahri Güreşçi May 12 '22 at 14:19

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 22 '09 at 00:37

3

Simple way if you're just wanting to update the previous line:

import time
for i in range(20):
    print str(i) + '\r',
    time.sleep(1)

answered Jan 22 '09 at 00:37

Dustin Wyatt

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 05 '17 at 13:58

2

Easiest way is to use two \r - one at the beginning and one at the end

for i in range(10000):
    print('\r'+str(round(i*100/10000))+'%  Complete\r'),

It will go pretty quickly

answered Aug 05 '17 at 13:58

bfree67

669
7
6

1

:-/ The first `\r` will be processed 9999 times for naught. If you don't know where your cursor is, you can call `print('\r')` *once* before the loop. – Aaron Digulla Sep 04 '17 at 09:56

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 19 '17 at 22:14

Thanks for all the useful answers in here guys. I needed this :)

I found nosklo's answer particularly useful, but I wanted something fully contained within a function by passing the desired output as a parameter. Also, I didn't really need the timer, since I wanted the printing to take place after a specific event).

This is what did the trick for me, I hope someone else finds it useful:

import sys

def replace_cmd_line(output):
    """Replace the last command line output with the given output."""
    sys.stdout.write(output)
    sys.stdout.flush()
    sys.stdout.write('\r')
    sys.stdout.flush()

You need just a single flush() at the end. I'm not sure `sys.stdout.write(output + '\r')` would be that much faster than two method calls (because of allocating memory for the string, copying, GC), so keeping them separate is probably OK. — Aaron Digulla, Jan 25 '17 at 09:47

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 09 '20 at 05:35

Yes, this question was asked 11 years ago but it's cool. I like to improvise. Add-on to nosklo's answer:

import sys
import time

def restart_line():
    sys.stdout.write("\r")
    sys.stdout.flush()

string_one = "some data that is very long..."
sys.stdout.write(string_one)
sys.stdout.flush()

time.sleep(2)
restart_line()

string_two = "shorter data"
if len(string_two) < len(string_one):
    string_two = string_two+(" "*int((len(string_one)-len(string_two))))
    # This will overwrite the characters that would be left on the console

sys.stdout.write(string_two)
sys.stdout.flush()

Neek0tine · Answer 10 · 2022-01-02T20:02:02.970

Tested on PyCharm 2020.3 and Python version 3.9, to overwrite written printout I use the following:

from time import sleep

for x in range(10):
    print(f'\r {x}', end='')
    sleep(0.6)

That's the code I mainly use for my programs. Using end='\r' will overwrite the whole text for me, ignoring sleep.

In real scenario, I set it up as follows:

    def progress_callback(progress):
        print(f'\rDownloading File: {progress.dlable.file_name}  Progress: ' + '{0:.2f}%'.format(progress.percent), end='')
        # `return True` if the download should be canceled
        return False

    print('\nDownload complete!)

The print after the overwrite function has to be in new line, or the same line before will be overwritten.

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 03 '12 at 05:13

On Windows (python 3), it seems to work (not using stdout directly):

import sys

for i in reversed(range(0,20)):
  time.sleep(0.1)
  if(i == 19):
    print(str(i), end='', file=sys.stdout)
  else:
    print("\r{0:{width}".format(str(i), width = w, fill = ' ', align = 'right'), end='', file=sys.stdout)
  sys.stdout.flush()
  w = len(str(i))

The same line is updated everytime print function is called.

This algorithm can be improved, but it is posted to show what you can do. You can modify the method according to your needs.

This won't work as you are defining `w` after it is called. – Aidan H Jun 03 '19 at 03:02 — Aidan H, Jun 03 '19 at 03:02

How can I overwrite/print over the current line in Windows command line?

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