How to suppress console output in Python?

Question

I'm using Pygame/SDL's joystick module to get input from a gamepad. Every time I call its get_hat() method it prints to the console. This is problematic since I use the console to help me debug and now it gets flooded with SDL_JoystickGetHat value:0: 60 times every second. Is there a way I can disable this? Either through an option in Pygame/SDL or suppress console output while the function calls? I saw no mention of this in the Pygame documentation.

edit: This turns out to be due to debugging being turned on when the SDL library was compiled.

Answer 1

Just for completeness, here's a nice solution from Dave Smith's blog:

from contextlib import contextmanager
import sys, os

@contextmanager
def suppress_stdout():
    with open(os.devnull, "w") as devnull:
        old_stdout = sys.stdout
        sys.stdout = devnull
        try:  
            yield
        finally:
            sys.stdout = old_stdout

With this, you can use context management wherever you want to suppress output:

print("Now you see it")
with suppress_stdout():
    print("Now you don't")