How To Clear Screen In Java

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12 Years Ago

hello all

how can i clear the DOS screen through java program

i hava search so many web site but i can't found the proper ans.

thanx in advance [:)]

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comment Latest Post 9 Years Ago Latest Post by stultuske

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12 Years Ago

The link, I gave you, contains the discussion, where your questions were explained .. also it gives one more example of clearing :)

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VernonDozier 2,218 Posting Expert Featured Poster

12 Years Ago

Here's a decent thread on the subject. Since you mentioned "DOS", I assume you really mean "Windows Console" since very few people use DOS now.

http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic9880.htm

I couldn't get it to work for me, but I didn't play with it for all that long. It looked like it worked for other people though. Basically you are trying to execute the "cls" command through Runtime.getRuntime().exec or something very similar.

Hope this helps.

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12 Years Ago

Sure .. here we go:
The Test class in this program represents your console window. It has some methods, but the one you're interested in is: cls().

What actually it does in the main method:
1. Creates an instance of console window
2. Prints some text in there
3. Waits for 5 seconds
4. Clears the window
5. Waiting for 5 seconds one more time
6. Exit

The waiting thing there ( Thread.sleep(5000); ) made only for demonstrative purposes.

Ask if you have any other questions :)

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VernonDozier 2,218 Posting Expert Featured Poster

12 Years Ago

Method

                            Runtime.getRuntime().exec()

requires an external command. CLS is internal dos command.
To run internal command using exec() we have to use CMD (external) command.
Try it at command prompt.

                            >cmd /?   -- help   >cmd /c cls

                            // Will create a new process  Process ps=Runtime.getRuntime().exec (new String[]{"cmd","/c","cls"});  ps.waitFor();

Well, here's the program I wrote. The screen isn't cleared. Anything wrong?

Both display strings are displayed and no exceptions are displayed.

                          public class ClearScreen {    public static void main (String args[])    {       try       {          // Will create a new process          Process ps=Runtime.getRuntime().exec (new String[]{"cmd","/c","cls"});          ps.waitFor();          System.out.println ("After process waitFor : Screen should be clear now?");       }       catch (Exception ex)       {          System.out.println (ex.toString ());       }        System.out.println ("After catch block");    } }

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Answer 1 · 2009-07-16T23:10:38+00:00

thanx for ur reply

but i have already used this code

char esc = 27;
String clear = esc + "[2J";
System.out.print(clear);

And this line must be inside the config.sys:
device=c:\windows\command\ansi.sys

" And this line must be inside the config.sys:
device=c:\windows\command\ansi.sys "

means what ?? can u explain me ???

what should i do ??

Hello, I haven't faced such problem before .. maybe this might help you:
Java Programming [Archive] - Clear screen?

Answer 2 · 2009-07-16T23:42:34+00:00

Sorry but i can't understand what the program "TEST" is abt ??

can u help me ??

The link, I gave you, contains the discussion, where your questions were explained .. also it gives one more example of clearing :)

Answer 3 · 2009-07-17T09:33:29+00:00

hi!!!

i have tried these code
but it does n't work (do not give any error)

1)

                          String clearScreenCommand = null; if( System.getProperty( "os.name" ).startsWith( "Window" ) )    clearScreenCommand = "cls"; else    clearScreenCommand = "clear";  Runtime.getRuntime().exec( clearScreenCommand );

2)

                                                      Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cls");

3) (provide the error )

                                                      try {         Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cls");     } catch (IOException e) {         e.printStackTrace();     }

4)

                                                      System.Console.Clear();

(provide the error )

cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Console
location: class java.lang.System

                                                      System.Console.Clear();                ^

whould u explian me through simple program ?

sholud i have add any pakage ???

Here's a decent thread on the subject. Since you mentioned "DOS", I assume you really mean "Windows Console" since very few people use DOS now.

http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic9880.htm

I couldn't get it to work for me, but I didn't play with it for all that long. It looked like it worked for other people though. Basically you are trying to execute the "cls" command through Runtime.getRuntime().exec or something very similar.

Hope this helps.

VernonDozier 2,218 Posting Expert Featured Poster · Answer 4 · 2009-07-17T10:15:06+00:00

I didn't get it to work for me, so I can't help you debug much. Regarding console, import java.io.Console . Case counts.

                          import java.io.Console;  public class ClearScreen {     public static void main (String args[])     {          Console cons = System.console ();     } }

I see no Clear () command in the Console class though, so i don't know where you got that.

http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/io/Console.html

I think this may be a dead end.

I think the answer must be Runtime.getRuntime().exec (....) , though when I run it, it says it can't find the program "cls", so there's something more to it. Wish I could be of more help.

__avd 1,826 Posting Genius (adatapost) Team Colleague · Answer 5 · 2009-07-17T11:18:48+00:00

Method

                          Runtime.getRuntime().exec()

requires an external command. CLS is internal dos command.
To run internal command using exec() we have to use CMD (external) command.
Try it at command prompt.

                          >cmd /?   -- help   >cmd /c cls

                          // Will create a new process  Process ps=Runtime.getRuntime().exec (new String[]{"cmd","/c","cls"});  ps.waitFor();

__avd 1,826 Posting Genius (adatapost) Team Colleague · Answer 6 · 2009-07-17T20:20:40+00:00

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__avd 1,826 Posting Genius (adatapost) Team Colleague

12 Years Ago

I am sorry. In my post: I said, you can't execute dos internal command directly because they are only interpreted by the shell (cmd command).
I apologize for the inconvenience.
PS: exec() method cannot read or write anything interactively. It has getInputStream(), and getOutputStream() methods.

Answer 7 · 2009-07-17T20:37:23+00:00

@ adatapost

sorry but it's n't work !!!!

Method

                            Runtime.getRuntime().exec()

requires an external command. CLS is internal dos command.
To run internal command using exec() we have to use CMD (external) command.
Try it at command prompt.

                            >cmd /?   -- help   >cmd /c cls

                            // Will create a new process  Process ps=Runtime.getRuntime().exec (new String[]{"cmd","/c","cls"});  ps.waitFor();

Answer 8 · 2011-06-09T19:42:25+00:00

Y'know, I've tried some of the methods that you guys mentioned, and they didn't do split!
Here's what I did:

Declarations:

                          Runtime runtime; 		Process process; 		int errno = 0; 		BufferedReader reader;

After getting some input, I go to clear the screen:

                          runtime = Runtime.getRuntime(); 			// define the Process object and clear the screen. 			process = runtime.exec("cmd /c cls"); 			while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) 			{ 				System.out.println(line); 			} 			System.out.flush(); 			reader.close(); 			errno = process.waitFor(); 			System.out.println("\"cmd /c cls\" returned " + errno);

The results were:

Enter something
blah

"cmd /c cls" returned 0

What I couldn't show you in the above quote, is a little "square" that was returned by the output of the cmd utility.

I am sorry. In my post: I said, you can't execute dos internal command directly because they are only interpreted by the shell (cmd command).
I apologize for the inconvenience.
PS: exec() method cannot read or write anything interactively. It has getInputStream(), and getOutputStream() methods.

So, it would look like that the only way to clear the screen in java is to execute some sort of method in the PrintStream class. Am I right?

I looked it up the methods at (PrintStream Class Documentation (Java SE 6)) and it wasn't there. It seems that there isn't any way to clear the screen in Java. If my observation is wrong, then can someone please post the solution to this problem? It seems lazy for the Java people not to provide a means to clear the screen in their library when Microsoft has been providing this luxury to programmers for decades!

Answer 9 · 2011-08-18T13:28:48+00:00

I tried all the above but no use.
one thing i didn't get is i don't know in which package the function Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cls"); is...???

Ezzaral 2,714 Posting Sage Team Colleague Featured Poster · Answer 10 · 2011-08-18T23:27:33+00:00

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Ezzaral 2,714 Posting Sage Team Colleague Featured Poster

10 Years Ago

Answer 11 · 2011-08-19T04:01:27+00:00

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10 Years Ago

Why do you have to complicate things? The answer is simple.

                          System.out.print("\f");

Ezzaral 2,714 Posting Sage Team Colleague Featured Poster · Answer 12 · 2011-08-19T04:09:35+00:00

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Ezzaral 2,714 Posting Sage Team Colleague Featured Poster

10 Years Ago

Why do you have to complicate things? The answer is simple.

                            System.out.print("\f");

And did you try that before you posted it?

Answer 13 · 2011-08-19T04:25:24+00:00

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10 Years Ago

And did you try that before you posted it?

I have used that for my java project that runs in dos.

Ezzaral 2,714 Posting Sage Team Colleague Featured Poster · Answer 14 · 2011-08-19T04:31:32+00:00

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Ezzaral 2,714 Posting Sage Team Colleague Featured Poster

10 Years Ago

It certainly doesn't work in a Win7 command window - it prints an ankh symbol.

Edited 10 Years Ago by Ezzaral because: n/a

__avd 1,826 Posting Genius (adatapost) Team Colleague · Answer 15 · 2011-08-19T11:34:35+00:00

Use Jansi

Jansi is a small java library that allows you to use ANSI escape sequences to format your console output which works even on windows.

Steps:

1. Download the jansi-1.6.jar

2. Code to test jansi api.

                          import org.fusesource.jansi.*;  public class Test {   public static void main(String []args)   {        AnsiConsole.systemInstall();        Ansi ansi=Ansi.ansi();                 System.out.println(ansi.eraseScreen());         AnsiConsole.out.println(ansi.bg(Ansi.Color.RED) + "Hello");  } }

3. Compile and run

>javac -cp .;jansi-1.6.jar Test.java

>java -cp .;jansi-1.6.jar Test

shre 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 16 · 2012-05-27T16:51:08+00:00

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shre 0 Newbie Poster

9 Years Ago

System.out.print("\f");

works for me
there are diffrent commands recognigzed for different versions

Edited 9 Years Ago by __avd because: Email snipped.

stultuske 1,116 Posting Maven Featured Poster · Answer 17 · 2012-05-28T09:00:57+00:00

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stultuske 1,116 Posting Maven Featured Poster

9 Years Ago

shre: this thread hasn't been answred/ followed for almost a year, I think the OP (who asked the question over two years ago) by now has his/her answer or doesn't really care anymore.

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