How to clear console python

How to Clear Screen in Python?

Learn how to clear screen in python.

Introduction to Python Clear Screen

Suppose there is a case where you have given the information of 3 students and you have to print their details in a way like first there will be information of student 1 then after some time information of student 2 will be displayed and then finally the information of student 3 will be displayed. So, in that case we will have to clear the python console each time after displaying information of each student.

Image Explanation of the above Example

We can clear screen programmatically and it helps us to format the output in the way we want. We can also clear the output whenever we want many number of times.

How to clear python console screen?

Clearing the console in python has different methods for different Operating Systems. These are stated below:

Syntax of system() function: system() function is in os module so, os module needs to be imported before using the system() function in Windows. After importing os module string value parameter ‘cls’ is passed inside the system function to clear the screen.

Syntax: os module needs to be imported before using the system() function in linux. After importing os module string value parameter ‘clear’ is passed inside the system function to clear the screen.

Example of Python Clear Screen

Example 1: Clearing Screen in Windows Operating System

Let’s take a look at an example of the clear screen in python to clear our understanding.

We will use the above stated system() function for clearing the python console.

First we will print some Output then we will wait for 4 seconds using sleep() function to halt the program for 4 seconds and after that we will apply os.system(‘cls’) to clear the screen.

Output

The output window will print the given text first, then the program will sleep for 4 seconds and then screen will be cleared and program execution will be stopped.

Example 2: Clearing the screen then printing some more information in Windows Operating System.

First we will print some Output then we will wait for 1 second using sleep() function and after that we will apply os.system(‘cls’) to clear the screen.

After that, we will print some more information.

Output

The output window will print the first information, then the program will sleep for 1 second and screen will be cleared and then it will print the second information and again program will sleep for 1 second and at last program will be stopped after printing the final batch of information.

Example 3: Clearing Screen in linux Operating System

We will use the above stated system() function for clearing the python console.

First we will print some Output then we will wait for 5 seconds using sleep() function and after that we will apply os.system(‘clear’) to clear the screen.

Output

The output window will print the given text first, then the program will sleep for 5 seconds and then screen will be cleared and program execution will be stopped.

Example 4: What if we dont know what OS we are working on?

There can be a case where we have to first determine what os we are working on. So for that we will first determine whether the os is windows or linux or mac.

For Windows os name is «nt» and for linux or mac, os name is «posix».

So Will first check the os name and then accordingly apply the function.

Output

For this case os name is ‘nt’ so windows console will be cleared after 2 seconds of program sleep and then it will be terminated.

Conclusion

Now that we have seen various examples of how to clear screen in python, let us note down a few points.

Is there a python 3 command to clear the output console?

So I am trying to make a simple Conway’s game of life in PyCharm, and I can only get a a bunch outputs and not a video like stream in the output console. Is there a command that will let me clear the output every loop in the program. I have already tried the «sys» commands, and the ANSI escape keys (I hope I spelled that right). Nothing seems to be working! I am using Python 3.

I would like to clear the console on the first print statement in the while loop. If that helps.

3 Answers 3

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From this https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/interactive-console.html. It basically uses a system based python interpreter, there is no direct way or command to clear Python interpreter console. So you need a system call to clear the Python interpreter console screen. For window system, cls clear the console. For the Linux system, clear command works. It requires the OS library to be imported.

import os clear = lambda: os.system(‘cls’) #on Windows System os.system(‘clear’) #on Linux System clear()

The “lambda” keyword in Python is used to define anonymous functions.

Clear screen in shell

Just a quick question:
How do you clear the screen in shell? I’ve seen ways like:

This just opens the windows cmd, clears the screen and closes but I want the shell window to be cleared
(PS: I don’t know this helps, but I’m using version 3.3.2 of Python)
Thank you 🙂

20 Answers 20

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Trending sort is based off of the default sorting method — by highest score — but it boosts votes that have happened recently, helping to surface more up-to-date answers.

It falls back to sorting by highest score if no posts are trending.

Switch to Trending sort

It works for all shells e.g. Python, Bash, MySQL, MATLAB, etc.

For macOS/OS X, you can use the subprocess module and call ‘cls’ from the shell:

To prevent ‘0’ from showing on top of the window, replace the 2nd line with:

For Linux, you must replace cls command with clear

Here are some options that you can use on Windows

Third option if you are in Python REPL window:

The sort of thing that you are looking for is to be found in the curses module.

Important Note

The important thing to remember is before any exit, you need to reset the terminal to a normal mode, this can be done with the following lines:

If you don’t you will get all sort of strange behaviour. To ensure that this is always done I would suggest using the atexit module, something like:

Will probably do nicely.

In addition to being an all-around great CLI library, click also provides a platform-agnostic clear() function:

This function works in any OS (Unix, Linux, macOS, and Windows)
Python 2 and Python 3

An easier way to clear a screen while in python is to use Ctrl + L though it works for the shell as well as other programs.

If you are using linux terminal to access python, then cntrl+l is the best solution to clear screen

I am using a class that just uses one of the above methods behind the scenes. I noticed it works on Windows and Linux. I like using it though because it’s easier to type clear() instead of system(‘clear’) or os.system(‘clear’)

and then when you want to clear the shell:

using windows 10 and pyhton3.5 i have tested many codes and nothing helped me more than this:

First define a simple function, this funtion will print 50 newlines;(the number 50 will depend on how many lines you can see on your screen, so you can change this number)

then just call it as many times as you want or need

Rather than importing all of curses or shelling out just to get one control character, you can simply use (on Linux/macOS):

Subprocess allows you to call «cls» for Shell.

That’s as simple as I can make it. Hope it works for you!

Command+K works fine in OSX to clear screen.

Shift+Command+K to clear only the scrollback buffer.

you can Use Window Or Linux Os

you can use subprocess module

os.system(‘cls’) works fine when I open them. It opens in cmd style.

Here’s how to make your very own cls or clear command that will work without explicitly calling any function!

Use clear instead of cls if you’re on linux (in both the os command and the variable name)!

Let’s test it out:

And the screen is clear!

[Simple Steps] How to Clear Python Interpreter Console Screen?

Do you use the Python interpreter console for practicing Python code?

You might have seen, there is no direct way or command to clear Python interpreter console.

No worries. There is indirect way of doing this. Let’s see.

You can clear the Python interpreter console screen using a system call.

System calls to clear the console:

We can run these system calls through the Python to clear screen. It’s simple.

To call the system calls through the Python console, we need the os library to be imported. This os library comes inbuilt with python installation. There is no need to explicitly install it.

Watch this video where I have demonstrated how you can clear the Python shell interpreter console.

Command to clear Python Interpreter Console on Window

Using Python Definition:

If you know the basic Python syntax, this code is self explanatory.

Using Lambda Function:

Command to clear Python Interpreter Console on Linux:

Using Python Definition:

Using Lambda Function:

Don’t Just Copy Paste the Code:

Why am I saying that?

If you copy-paste the code, I am pretty sure you will forget this code and then tomorrow again you will do a Google Search.

The best way is to understand the code written above. It is pretty simple to remember and write code if you know how it has implemented.

What is Lambda Function here?

Above code is all about lambda function.

The “lambda” keyword in Python is used to define anonymous functions. And these functions are also called as lambda functions.

Learn more about lambda function. You can write many such codes with no more hustle. It is extremely useful.

These commands are tested on Python 3.4 version. It will work for both Python 2.x and 3.x versions.

What’s Next?

You can run a Python program without using the Python interpreter console. Install free text editor for your system (Linux/Windows/Mac). And now you can run the Python program from Windows’s command prompt or Linux’s terminal.

I am a Python developer. I usually keep Python interpreter console opened. Sometimes test command runs over it and creates cluttered print output on python console. These backlog print command needs to be cleared. So use this trick to clear screen in Python.

Related Articles:

Hope you find this quick commands and guide useful for your Python learning. Is there anything I can help you with? Feel free to write in the comment section below.

Clear Screen in Python

While working on the Python terminal (not a console)/interactive shell, some errors occur in the output. So, we have to clean the screen by pressing Control (Ctrl) and L keys simultaneously.

However, sometimes there are situations when the output has to be formatted properly to eliminate issues.

That’s why clearing the screen is based on the amount of output. In this situation, some commands need to be inserted in Python’s script to clear the screen as and when required.

So in this article, we will consider every possible way to clear the screen in Python without having any trouble or errors.

How to Clear Screen in Python Terminal

If you are working on a terminal, then use commands «cls» and «clear» to clear the terminal like this:

For Windows Users

If you are a Windows user and want to clear the screen in Python, you can easily do it using the «cls» command.

This command will instantly clear the screen, as you can see in the below image:

For Linux Users

Linux also has a command to clear screen in Python easily, so use the following command to do it:

Remember there is no specific function, built-in keywords, etc., available to clear the screen. That’s why users need to clear the screen according to them.

Clear Screen in Python Using Functions

Now let’s consider the functions we can use for clearing the screen in Python and remember that you can use these functions in both Windows and Linux.

Using click library

In this method, you can use click library to create a function, and it can work on both Windows and Linux.

Code Explanation:

In the above example, we are using click.clear() function from click library to clear screen.

This function works in Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems.

Using \n (Newline character)

The whole way of not clearing the screen is as different as the answer is different. To remove any further error of the line, the user does not need to run the external process completely so that the screen can be cleared.

To clear the screen, you have to print new numbers which are higher than the height and can print something like this («\ n» * 10)

Code Explanation:

In the above example, we need to clear a few lined of the screen so we use “\n” with print, this will add a newline character and clear x number of lines.

Clear screen program by using os.system method

There are many OS platforms like Windows, Linux, and macOS, so we need different commands to clear the screen. So as you can see in the below syntax, we have used the ‘_’ variable for holding the value of the last expression in the interpreter.

Now we will describe the os.system method to clear the screen in Python without having any troubles. As you can see in the below syntax, we have used the os.system command because It is a string that tells which command needs to be executed.

Code Explanation:

We got «Screen Cleared» as we have printed it using the above syntax in the output.

Example 2

Code Explanation:

In the above example first, we check if the platform is Windows or Linux by using platform.system() function.

Using Subprocess Library

In this example, we have used the subprocess() function to execute an action for clearing the screen in output.

Conclusion

So this is how you can easily clear the screen in Python using functions or commands in the Syntax. As we have mentioned earlier,

There are many methods to clear the screen in Python without getting any errors. But, in our opinion, a clear screen using a click library is the easiest because it works with both the operating systems Unix, Windows, and macOS. And it doesn’t need checking the OS.