By using the \r and \b escape sequences to control the position of the cursor, you can create flip-book style animations with your text. Here’s how to make a spinner to indicate busy status:
Python
#!/usr/bin/env python
from time import sleep
# Show the spinning animation 3 times
print('Everybody look busy ', end='', flush=True)
for x in range(3):
for frame in r'-\|/-\|/':
# Back up one character then print our next frame in the animation
print('\b', frame, sep='', end='', flush=True)
sleep(0.2)
# Back up one character, print a space to erase the spinner, then a newline
# so that the prompt after the program exits isn't on the same line as our
# message
print('\b ')
Here’s how you could make a progress bar:
Python
#!/usr/bin/env python
from time import sleep
def progress(percent=0, width=30):
# The number of hashes to show is based on the percent passed in. The
# number of blanks is whatever space is left after.
hashes = width * percent // 100
blanks = width - hashes
print('\r[', hashes*'#', blanks*' ', ']', f' {percent:.0f}%', sep='',
end='', flush=True)
print('This will take a moment')
for i in range(101):
progress(i)
sleep(0.1)
# Newline so command prompt isn't on the same line
print()