Clearing output of a terminal program in Linux C

Question

I want to clear the output of a C program produced with printf statements. I want to clear only one line, for example:

[source]

printf("AAAAAAAAAAAAAA\n"); printf("BBBBBBBBBBBBBB\n"); printf("CCCCCCCCCCCCCC\n"); printf("DDDDDDDDDDDDDD\n");

[terminal]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA BBBBBBBBBBBBBB CCCCCCCCCCCCCC DDDDDDDDDDDDDD

[I hope]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA BBBBBBBBBBBBBB CCCCCCCCCCCCCC

I will "DDDDDDDDDDDDDD" line in write other string. I just want the above A, B, C sentences to left. Only clear D sentences to change the other sentences, unconditionally output D sentences.

How do I do this?

Gaurang Tandon · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-04 03:41:47Z

There're several ways to delete the DDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Print backspace several times

printf("\b");

Print carriage-return and then print something to override the original line

printf("\r");

If you are in a newline. You may use terminal commands to move your cursor

such as printf("\033[8;5Hhello"); // Move to (8, 5) and output hello

Other commands:

printf("\033[XA"); // Move up X lines; printf("\033[XB"); // Move down X lines; printf("\033[XC"); // Move right X column; printf("\033[XD"); // Move left X column; printf("\033[2J"); // Clear screen ...

Don't forget ncurses

It is the best ways to control the exact layout and format in a terminal

Move to (8,5) and output abcd. ;) In your case you should use printf("\033[1A") to move up one line.

someone · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-09 17:44:22Z

If you are using X-Term compatibles (Gnome Terminal included), then print the following

printf("\033[2J");

or

cout << "\033[2J";

where \033 is the escape character in ASCII and [2J is the specific action (clear).

Bhargav Rao · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-04 04:08:06Z

I tried answering for what is best expected here.

printf("AAAAAAAAAAAAAA"); printf("BBBBBBBBBBBBBB"); printf("CCCCCCCCCCCCCC"); //printf("DDDDDDDDDDDDDD");

comment the last line or delete if you dont want to display in terminal. printf("xxxx") is the statement used for printing output in terminal.

You completely missed the point. The point is not to get it to stop printing, it's to clear it from the terminal (like if you want to refresh the terminal view, etc)

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Clearing output of a terminal program in Linux C

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