\r functionality

[Jake]

in c and c++ there is a useful way to refresh an output line in printf
and cout using \r meta command. So for example in the wget application
the progress of the download is updated on the same output line of the
screen. From an intital investigation python seems to lack this. Is
this correct?

[Markus Weihs]

Hi!

No. Well, I think you can't do it with print, but you can do this:

import sys
import time

signs = "|/-\\"
while 1:
for i in signs:
sys.stdout.write(i+"\r")
sys.stdout.flush()
time.sleep(0.2)

Regards, Markus

[Daniel Schüle]

>>> print "a\rb"
b
>>>

[Duncan Booth]

Jake wrote:

>>> for i in range(10000):
... print '\r',i,'and counting',
...
9999 and counting

(not obvious from the copy/paste of the output is that it also displayed
the intervening numbers as it counted). The important thing is to end each
print statement with a comma (or use sys.stdout.write).

[Fredrik Lundh]

"Jake" <jacob...@gmail.com> wrote:

> in c and c++ there is a useful way to refresh an output line in printf
> and cout using \r meta command.

that's a control character that's printed to the terminal by printf/cout,
not a "C or C++ meta command"

to print the same character in Python, use the same character escape:

print "\r", count,

(note that if this works or not depends on the terminal you're sending the
output to. most ordinary terminals handle it just fine, but if you're sending
output to an IDE console window, it may not work as expected)

</F>