Usage of sys.stdout.flush() method

Consider the following simple Python script:

import time
import sys

for i in range(5):
    print(i),
    #sys.stdout.flush()
    time.sleep(1)

This is designed to print one number every second for five seconds, but if you run it as it is now (depending on your default system buffering) you may not see any output until the script completes, and then all at once you will see 0 1 2 3 4 printed to the screen.

This is because the output is being buffered, and unless you flush sys.stdout after each print you won’t see the output immediately. Remove the comment from the sys.stdout.flush() line to see the difference.

As per my understanding, When ever we execute print statements output will be written to buffer. And we will see the output on screen when buffer get flushed(cleared). By default buffer will be flushed when program exits. BUT WE CAN ALSO FLUSH THE BUFFER MANUALLY by using “sys.stdout.flush()” statement in the program. In the below code buffer will be flushed when value of i reaches 5.

You can understand by executing the below code.

chiru@online:~$ cat flush.py

import time
import sys

for i in range(10):
    print i
    if i == 5:
        print "Flushing buffer"
        sys.stdout.flush()
    time.sleep(1)

for i in range(10):
    print i,
    if i == 5:
        print "Flushing buffer"
        sys.stdout.flush()

chiru@online:~$ python flush.py 
0 1 2 3 4 5 Flushing buffer
6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 Flushing buffer
6 7 8 9

import sys
for x in range(10000):
    print "HAPPY >> %s <<r" % str(x),
    sys.stdout.flush()

As per my understanding sys.stdout.flush() pushes out all the data that has been buffered to that point to a file object.
While using stdout, data is stored in buffer memory (for some time or until the memory gets filled) before it gets written to terminal. Using flush() forces to empty the buffer and write to terminal even before buffer has empty space.

You can see the differences b/w these two

import sys

for i in range(1,10 ):
    sys.stdout.write(str(i))
    sys.stdout.flush()

for i in range(1,10 ):
    print i

In the first case, the characters are output one by one after each is written, because of the flush. In the second case, the characters are buffered by Python until it thinks it’s got something worth the effort to write, and then written all in a batch.

If you add, say, a time.sleep(0.2) in the loops, this becomes more obvious.

Imagine you have a toy box where you keep all your toys. When you want to play with a toy, you usually take it out of the box, right?

In a similar way, when you write something on the computer, it gets stored in a temporary place called a buffer. Think of it like a toy box for computer data. The computer waits until the toy box is full before it takes the data out of the box and shows it to you on the screen.

However, sometimes you might want to play with a toy right away, without waiting for the toy box to fill up with other toys. This is like when you call sys.stdout.flush() in Python. It tells the computer to take the data out of the buffer and show it to you on the screen right away, without waiting for the buffer to fill up.