here something handy that is a little more cross-platform

import os



def cls():

    os.system('cls' if os.name=='nt' else 'clear')



# now, to clear the screen

cls()

Well, here's a quick hack:

>>> clear = "n" * 100

>>> print clear

>>> ...do some other stuff...

>>> print clear

Or to save some typing, put this file in your python search path:

# wiper.py

class Wipe(object):

    def __repr__(self):

        return 'n'*1000



wipe = Wipe()

Then you can do this from the interpreter all you like :)

>>> from wiper import wipe

>>> wipe

>>> wipe

>>> wipe

Although this is an older question, I thought I'd contribute something summing up what I think were the best of the other answers and add a wrinkle of my own by suggesting that you put these command(s) into a file and set your PYTHONSTARTUP environment variable to point to it. Since I'm on Windows at the moment, it's slightly biased that way, but could easily be slanted some other direction.

Here's some articles I found that describe how to set environment variables on Windows:

    When to use sys.path.append and when modifying %PYTHONPATH% is enough

    How To Manage Environment Variables in Windows XP

    Configuring System and User Environment Variables

    How to Use Global System Environment Variables in Windows

BTW, don't put quotes around the path to the file even if it has spaces in it.

Anyway, here's my take on the code to put in (or add to your existing) Python startup script:

# ==== pythonstartup.py ====



# add something to clear the screen

class cls(object):

    def __repr__(self):

        import os

        os.system('cls' if os.name == 'nt' else 'clear')

        return ''



cls = cls()



# ==== end pythonstartup.py ====

BTW, you can also use @Triptych's __repr__ trick to change exit() into just exit (and ditto for its alias quit):

class exit(object):

    exit = exit # original object

    def __repr__(self):

        self.exit() # call original

        return ''



quit = exit = exit()

Lastly, here's something else that changes the primary interpreter prompt from >>> to cwd+>>>:

class Prompt:

    def __str__(self):

        import os

        return '%s >>> ' % os.getcwd()



import sys

sys.ps1 = Prompt()

del sys

del Prompt

You have number of ways doing it on Windows:

1. Using Keyboard shortcut:

Press CTRL + L

2. Using system invoke method:

import os

cls = lambda: os.system('cls')

cls()

3. Using new line print 100 times:

cls = lambda: print('n'*100)

cls()

Quickest and easiest way without a doubt is Ctrl+L.

This is the same for OS X on the terminal.

my way of doing this is to write a function like so:

import os

import subprocess



def clear():

    if os.name in ('nt','dos'):

        subprocess.call("cls")

    elif os.name in ('linux','osx','posix'):

        subprocess.call("clear")

    else:

        print("n") * 120

then call clear() to clear the screen.
this works on windows, osx, linux, bsd... all OSes.

Wiper is cool, good thing about it is I don't have to type '()' around it.
Here is slight variation to it

# wiper.py

import os

class Cls(object):

    def __repr__(self):

        os.system('cls')

        return ''

The usage is quite simple:

>>> cls = Cls()

>>> cls # this will clear console.

Here's the definitive solution that merges all other answers. Features:

1. You can copy-paste the code into your shell or script.


2. 
   

   You can use it as you like:

   
   
   

   >>> clear()
   
   >>> -clear
   
   >>> clear  # <- but this will only work on a shell
   
   

   
   


3. 
   

   You can import it as a module:

   
   
   

   >>> from clear import clear
   
   >>> -clear
   
   

   
   


4. 
   

   You can call it as a script:

   
   
   

   $ python clear.py
   
   

   
   



5. It is truly multiplatform; if it can't recognize your system
   
   (ce, nt, dos or posix) it will fall back to printing blank lines.

You can download the [full] file here: https://gist.github.com/3130325

Or if you are just looking for the code:

class clear:

 def __call__(self):

  import os

  if os.name==('ce','nt','dos'): os.system('cls')

  elif os.name=='posix': os.system('clear')

  else: print('n'*120)

 def __neg__(self): self()

 def __repr__(self):

  self();return ''



clear=clear()

Use idle. It has many handy features. Ctrl+F6, for example, resets the console. Closing and opening the console are good ways to clear it.

I use iTerm and the native terminal app for Mac OS.

I just press ⌘ + k

Here's a cross platform (Windows / Linux / Mac / Probably others that you can add in the if check) version snippet I made combining information found in this question:

import os

clear = lambda: os.system('cls' if os.name=='nt' else 'clear')

clear()

Same idea but with a spoon of syntactic sugar:

import subprocess   

clear = lambda: subprocess.call('cls||clear', shell=True)

clear()

I'm not sure if Windows' "shell" supports this, but on Linux:

print "33[2J"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#CSI_codes

In my opinion calling cls with os is a bad idea generally. Imagine if I manage to change the cls or clear command on your system, and you run your script as admin or root.

I'm using MINGW/BASH on Windows XP, SP3.

(stick this in .pythonstartup)

# My ctrl-l already kind of worked, but this might help someone else

# leaves prompt at bottom of the window though...

import readline

readline.parse_and_bind('C-l: clear-screen')

# This works in BASH because I have it in .inputrc as well, but for some

# reason it gets dropped when I go into Python

readline.parse_and_bind('C-y: kill-whole-line')

I couldn't stand typing 'exit()' anymore and was delighted with martineau's/Triptych's tricks:

I slightly doctored it though (stuck it in .pythonstartup)

class exxxit():

    """Shortcut for exit() function, use 'x' now"""

    quit_now = exit # original object

    def __repr__(self):

        self.quit_now() # call original

x = exxxit()

Py2.7.1>help(x)

Help on instance of exxxit in module __main__:



class exxxit

 |  Shortcut for exit() function, use 'x' now

 |

 |  Methods defined here:

 |

 |  __repr__(self)

 |

 |  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 |  Data and other attributes defined here:

 |

 |  quit_now = Use exit() or Ctrl-Z plus Return to exit

Here are two nice ways of doing that:

1.

import os



# Clear Windows command prompt.

if (os.name in ('ce', 'nt', 'dos')):

    os.system('cls')



# Clear the Linux terminal.

elif ('posix' in os.name):

    os.system('clear')

2.

import os



def clear():

    if os.name == 'posix':

        os.system('clear')



    elif os.name in ('ce', 'nt', 'dos'):

        os.system('cls')





clear()

How about this for a clear

- os.system('cls')

That is about as short as could be!

The OS command clear in Linux and cls in Windows outputs a "magic string" which you can just print. To get the string, execute the command with popen and save it in a variable for later use:

from os import popen

with popen('clear') as f:

    clear = f.read()



print clear

On my machine the string is 'x1b[Hx1b[2J'.

I'm new to python (really really new) and in one of the books I'm reading to get acquainted with the language they teach how to create this little function to clear the console of the visible backlog and past commands and prints:

Open shell / Create new document / Create function as follows:

def clear():

    print('n' * 50)

Save it inside the lib folder in you python directory (mine is C:Python33Lib)
Next time you nedd to clear your console just call the function with:

clear()

that's it.
PS: you can name you function anyway you want. Iv' seen people using "wiper" "wipe" and variations.

I found the simplest way is just to close the window and run a module/script to reopen the shell.

just use this..

print 'n'*1000

I might be late to the part but here is a very easy way to do it

Type:

def cls():

    os.system("cls")

So what ever you want to clear the screen just type in your code

cls()

Best way possible! (Credit : https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_3770292585&feature=iv&src_vid=bguKhMnvmb8&v=LtGEp9c6Z-U)

This is the simplest thing you can do and it doesn't require any additional libraries. It will clear the screen and return >>> to the top left corner.

print("33[H33[J")

EDIT: I've just read "windows", this is for linux users, sorry.

In bash:

#!/bin/bash



while [ "0" == "0" ]; do

    clear

    $@

    while [ "$input" == "" ]; do

        read -p "Do you want to quit? (y/n): " -n 1 -e input

        if [ "$input" == "y" ]; then

            exit 1

        elif [ "$input" == "n" ]; then

            echo "Ok, keep working ;)"

        fi

    done

    input=""

done

Save it as "whatyouwant.sh", chmod +x it then run:

./whatyouwant.sh python

or something other than python (idle, whatever).
This will ask you if you actually want to exit, if not it rerun python (or the command you gave as parameter).

This will clear all, the screen and all the variables/object/anything you created/imported in python.

In python just type exit() when you want to exit.

This should be cross platform, and also uses the preferred subprocess.call instead of os.system as per the os.system docs. Should work in Python >= 2.4.

import subprocess

import os



if os.name == 'nt':

    def clearscreen():

        subprocess.call("cls", shell=True)

        return

else:

    def clearscreen():

        subprocess.call("clear", shell=True)

        return

OK, so this is a much less technical answer, but I'm using the Python plugin for Notepad++ and it turns out you can just clear the console manually by right-clicking on it and clicking "clear". Hope this helps someone out there!

>>> ' '*80*25

UPDATE: 80x25 is unlikely to be the size of console windows, so to get the real console dimensions, use functions from pager module. Python doesn't provide anything similar from core distribution.

>>> from pager import getheight

>>> 'n' * getheight()

Magic strings are mentioned above - I believe they come from the terminfo database:

http://www.google.com/?q=x#q=terminfo

http://www.google.com/?q=x#q=tput+command+in+unix

$ tput clear| od -t x1z
0000000 1b 5b 48 1b 5b 32 4a >.[H.[2J<
0000007

I am using Spyder (Python 2.7) and to clean the interpreter console I use either

%clear

that forces the command line to go to the top and I will not see the previous old commands.

or I click "option" on the Console environment and select "Restart kernel" that removes everything.

Just enter

import os

os.system('cls') # Windows

os.system('clear') # Linux, Unix, Mac OS X

The easiest way
`>>> import os

clear = lambda: os.system('clear')
clear()`