How to overwrite the previous print to stdout in python?

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[1K\r')
print()

Since I ended up here via Google but am using Python 3, here's how this would work in Python 3:

for x in range(10):
    print("Progress {:2.1%}".format(x / 10), end="\r")

Related answer here: How can I suppress the newline after a print statement?

@Mike DeSimone answer will probably work most of the time. But...

for x in ['abc', 1]:
    print '{}\r'.format(x),

-> 1bc

This is because the '\r' only goes back to the beginning of the line but doesn't clear the output.

If POSIX support is enough for you, the following would clear the current line and leave the cursor at its beginning:

print '\x1b[2K\r',

It uses ANSI escape code to clear the terminal line. More info can be found in wikipedia and in this great talk.

Other approach

This other, (arguably worse) solution I have found looks like this:

last_x = ''
for x in ['abc', 1]:
    print ' ' * len(str(last_x)) + '\r',
    print '{}\r'.format(x),
    last_x = x

-> 1

One advantage is that it will work on windows too.

I had the same question before visiting this thread. For me the sys.stdout.write worked only if I properly flush the buffer i.e.

for x in range(10):
    sys.stdout.write('\r'+str(x))
    sys.stdout.flush()

Without flushing, the result is printed only at the end out the script