Function to clear the console in R and RStudio

Question

I am wondering if there is a function to clear the console in R and, in particular, RStudio I am looking for a function that I can type into the console, and not a keyboard shortcut.

Someone has already provided such a function in this StackExchange post from 2010. Unfortunately, this depends on the RCom package and will not run on Mac OS X.

It's not an exact duplicate but it's pretty highly related and the answer to this question was given in the following - stackoverflow.com/questions/8421005/… — Dason
– Dason, Commented Jan 11, 2013 at 15:56
Only type clc with this script clc.R that I development. How does it work? clc<-0; class(clc) <- 'cleanup'; print.cleanup <- function(cleanupObject) cat("\f"). The last line corresponds to RStudio but in terminal change it by print.cleanup <- function(cleanupObject) cat(c("\033[2J","\033[H")). The clc.R contains more details. — HubertRonald
– HubertRonald, Commented Feb 19, 2019 at 15:49
I found this command system("clear") similar to clear in bash which clean up everything even scrolling up. — Loub
– Loub, Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 7:36

nbro · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-16 23:26:43Z

630

Answer recommended by R Language Collective

cat("\014")

is the code to send CTRL+L to the console, and therefore will clear the screen.

Far better than just sending a whole lot of returns.

edited Mar 16, 2018 at 23:26

nbro

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answered Apr 18, 2013 at 13:49

E Luxo So

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11 Comments

Scott Ritchie Over a year ago

This just prints a single blank line to my interactive terminal (on both Ubuntu and Mac OSX)

Ruben Over a year ago

Works for me. This might also help with the extremely slow console-bug in Rstudio.

Johan Over a year ago

Works in RStudio on Mac, but not in R.app! In R.app the command Cmd+Alt+L clears the screen, not Ctrl+L... Is there a similar 'code' to send that key combination to the R.app? (I see that \014 is the ASCII code for Form Feed, so I guess it is not sending the key combination but just the Form Feed command, which makes it unlikely that a 'code' for Cmd+Alt+L would exist.)

Knows Not Much Over a year ago

does not work for me. windows 7, R console. (r.exe).

user6015398 Over a year ago

This works only in RStudio on Windows, not in the "usual" R console nor in a DOS console. For the record, it's also the Form Feed character, and you can just type cat("\f").

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nbro · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-16 23:33:08Z

108

If you are using the default R console, the key combination Option + Command + L will clear the console.

edited Mar 16, 2018 at 23:33

nbro

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answered Dec 18, 2013 at 5:50

Rindra

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3 Comments

Neil McGuigan Over a year ago

CTRL-L just in case you thought that was an "i", like me :)

ThinkBonobo Over a year ago

Ctrl + L for Rstudio on OSX Yosemite as well.

demongolem Over a year ago

This does not answer the question. The OP wanted a function and clearly said not a keyboard shortcut.

Ryan Blanchard · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-30 01:16:35Z

39

shell("cls") if on Windows,

shell("clear") if on Linux or Mac.

(shell() passes a command (or any string) to the host terminal.)

answered Mar 30, 2018 at 1:16

Ryan Blanchard

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6 Comments

Martini Bianco Over a year ago

This worked. It is not as elegant as the other answers, but far easier to remember.

Michael Szczepaniak Over a year ago

This is the only command that worked for me in the Rterm console on Windows 10... but what a pain to have to type all that...

user447688 Over a year ago

Likewise, this was the only one that worked for both RStudio, and my Windows 7 shell (cmd.exe) windows. To .Rprofile I've added: clear_fun <- function() shell("cls"); makeActiveBinding("cls", clear_fun, baseenv());

Bilbottom Over a year ago

This works for the terminal in Visual Studio Code on Windows.

Levi Baguley Over a year ago

shell("cls") is the only one that works for me if i use it in code in a snippet

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nbro · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-16 23:34:41Z

37

You may define the following function

clc <- function() cat(rep("\n", 50))

which you can then call as clc().

edited Mar 16, 2018 at 23:34

nbro

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answered Jan 10, 2013 at 16:51

Carl Witthoft

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1 Comment

hamaney Over a year ago

This does not clear the console rather it inserts 50 empty lines which push the output up.

nbro · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-16 23:45:10Z

32

cat("\f") may be easier to remember than cat("\014").

It works fine for me on Windows 10.

edited Mar 16, 2018 at 23:45

nbro

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answered May 29, 2016 at 17:15

bogec

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Comments

nbro · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-16 23:28:38Z

27

In Ubuntu-Gnome, simply pressing CTRL+L should clear the screen.

This also seems to also work well in Windows 10 and 7 and Mac OS X Sierra.

edited Mar 16, 2018 at 23:28

nbro

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answered Feb 5, 2016 at 20:40

kmario23

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Comments

nbro · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-16 23:37:05Z

18

Here's a function:

clear <- function() cat(c("\033[2J","\033[0;0H"))

then you can simply call it, as you call any other R function, clear().

If you prefer to simply type clear (instead of having to type clear(), i.e. with the parentheses), then you can do

clear_fun <- function() cat(c("\033[2J","\033[0;0H"));
makeActiveBinding("clear", clear_fun, baseenv())

edited Mar 16, 2018 at 23:37

nbro

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answered Jun 29, 2016 at 18:00

jvd10

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3 Comments

demongolem Over a year ago

Much like the \014 approach, this approach gives me funny characters (from the R console on a Windows 10 machine).

Martini Bianco Over a year ago

Unlike \014 (or \f) this worked for me on Windows 10 in Rterm.

jvd10 Over a year ago

@MartiniBianco: I think that the answers here should help. Basically "\033" is "ESC". The "[2J" and "[0;0H" clear the screen and move the cursor to upper left, respectively.

Léo Léopold Hertz 준영 · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-11 18:34:35Z

17

I developed an R package that will do this, borrowing from the suggestions above. The package is called called mise, as in "mise en place." You can install and run it using

install.packages("mise")
library(mise)
mise()

Note that mise() also deletes all variables and functions and closes all figures by default. To just clear the console, use mise(vars = FALSE, figs = FALSE).

edited Nov 11, 2016 at 18:34

Léo Léopold Hertz 준영

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answered Jul 5, 2016 at 0:47

papplegate

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Comments

Porcupine · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-06 17:13:35Z

10

In linux use system("clear") to clear the screen.

answered Aug 6, 2018 at 17:13

Porcupine

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Comments

Developer Guy · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-23 13:37:06Z

8

If you are using the default R console CTRL + L

RStudio - CTRL + L

edited Apr 23, 2018 at 13:37

Developer Guy

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answered Apr 23, 2018 at 9:55

Rakesh

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2 Comments

Andrea Girardi Over a year ago

Works on macOS too

Siyavash Over a year ago

The question asks for a function and specifically says does not want a keyboard shortcut!

SATYAJIT MAITRA · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-14 10:12:32Z

5

cat("\014") . This will work. no worries

answered Apr 14, 2020 at 10:12

SATYAJIT MAITRA

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Comments

2 revs, 2 users 67% · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-16 23:42:07Z

4

You can combine the following two commands

cat("\014"); 
cat(rep("\n", 50))

edited Mar 16, 2018 at 23:42

community wiki

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Léo Léopold Hertz 준영

Comments

Paul · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-12 03:30:35Z

1

Another option for RStudio is rstudioapi::sendToConsole("\014"). This will work even if output is diverted.

sink("out.txt")

cat("\014") # Console not cleared

rstudioapi::sendToConsole("\014") # Console cleared

sink()

answered Nov 12, 2020 at 3:30

Paul

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Comments

Dan Chaltiel · Accepted Answer · 2023-02-10 16:23:28Z

1

I know this question is very old, but I found myself visiting it many times looking for a totally different answer:

n = 20
for (i in 0:n) {
  cat(100*i/n, "% \r")
  flush.console()
  Sys.sleep(0.01) #do something slow
}

flush.console() will kind of "clear the console in r and studio", maybe not in OP's terms but still.

This code will act like a progress bar in the console. For each iteration, the percentage is incremented and then erased on the next iteration.

Note that this won't work without \r or with an \n, for some reason.

answered Feb 10, 2023 at 16:23

Dan Chaltiel

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