Print over previous output while evaluating?

Questions
1

I am running something like

For[count=1,count<=5000, count++,  
       Print["count = ",count];  
      pass  
]

where “pass” takes a few seconds to run. So the whole thing takes some hours. Printing “count” gives me a warm feeling that it is moving along. But it fills the screen in an unpleasant way. What I would like to happen is that
count =1
appears on the screen, while pass runs for the first time, and then
is REPLACED ON THE SCREEN (OVERWRITTEN) by
count=2
while pass runs for the second time, and so on. So I get the warm feeling of watching count increase, without filling the screen.

How can I make this happen?

Thanks

2

Check out Monitor

3

Thanks. Looks like exactly what I want …

4

Hans suggestion hits the bullseye, but Also consider PrintTemporary. It is not exactly what you asked for but it is useful as well for monitoring progress.

Regards,

Neil

5

There is also Dynamic:

Dynamic[count]

For[count=1,count<=5000, count++,  pass]
6

I haven’t tried Monitor, that could be better, but as another option I’ve been using my own little function for that forever:

pdr[expr_, symbols_List : {}, interval_ : Infinity] := 
 PrintTemporary[
  Dynamic[Refresh[expr, TrackedSymbols :> symbols, 
    UpdateInterval -> interval]]]

Before my code I use e.g. pdr[x,{x}], which shows x and updates whenever it does, or pdr[ListLinePlot[data],{},5] which updates a plot every 5 seconds, or whatever. It disappears when the block is done running.