Java – How to Clear Console in Java

consolejava

I have been pulling my hair for this since quite long time. I have researched for an hour on how to clear a console in Java.

All I found was dirty hacking either by printing a bunch of lines or executing this

Runtime.getruntime.exec("cls/clear");

However, nothing seems to be working for me. Isn't there really any a way of clearing the console in Java like in C (clrscr();). Isn't there any external library by which this can be achieved.

Please let me know if anyone has ever done this before using a proper function, library etc. instead of dirty hacking.

Best Answer

If your terminal supports ANSI escape codes, this clears the screen and moves the cursor to the first row, first column:

System.out.print("\033[H\033[2J");
System.out.flush();

This works on almost all UNIX terminals and terminal emulators. The Windows cmd.exe does not interprete ANSI escape codes.