Console based progress in Java

Question

Is there are easy way to implement a rolling percentage for a process in Java, to be displayed in the console? I have a percentage data type (double) I generated during a particular process, but can I force it to the console window and have it refresh, instead of just printing a new line for each new update to the percentage? I was thinking about pushing a cls and updating, because I'm working in a Windows environment, but I was hoping Java had some sort of built-in capability. All suggestions welcomed! Thanks!

Answer 1

You can print a carriage return \r to put the cursor back to the beginning of line.

Example:

public class ProgressDemo {
  static void updateProgress(double progressPercentage) {
    final int width = 50; // progress bar width in chars

    System.out.print("\r[");
    int i = 0;
    for (; i <= (int)(progressPercentage*width); i++) {
      System.out.print(".");
    }
    for (; i < width; i++) {
      System.out.print(" ");
    }
    System.out.print("]");
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
      for (double progressPercentage = 0.0; progressPercentage < 1.0; progressPercentage += 0.01) {
        updateProgress(progressPercentage);
        Thread.sleep(20);
      }
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {}
  }
}