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How to overwrite the previous print to stdout?

If I had the following code:

for x in range(10):
     print(x)

I would get the output of

1
2
etc..

What I would like to do is instead of printing a newline, I want to replace the previous value and overwrite it with the new value on the same line.

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Answer

Simple Version

One way is to use the carriage return ('r') character to return to the start of the line without advancing to the next line.

Python 3

for x in range(10):
    print(x, end='r')
print()

Python 2.7 forward compatible

from __future__ import print_function
for x in range(10):
    print(x, end='r')
print()

Python 2.7

for x in range(10):
    print '{}r'.format(x),
print

Python 2.0-2.6

for x in range(10):
    print '{0}r'.format(x),
print

In the latter two (Python 2-only) cases, the comma at the end of the print statement tells it not to go to the next line. The last print statement advances to the next line so your prompt won’t overwrite your final output.

Line Cleaning

If you can’t guarantee that the new line of text is not shorter than the existing line, then you just need to add a “clear to end of line” escape sequence, 'x1b[1K' ('x1b' = ESC):

for x in range(75):
    print('*' * (75 - x), x, end='x1b[1Kr')
print()
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