Can I find the console width with Java?

by

There are no reliable cross-platform solutions to this problem. Indeed, there are situations where it is not possible to know what the real console width is.

(See other answers for approaches that work some of the time and/or on some platforms. But beware of the limitations …)

For example, on a Linux system you can typically find out the notional terminal dimensions from the LINES and COLUMNS environment variables. While these variables are automatically updated when you resize some “terminal emulator” windows, this is not always the case. Indeed, in the case of a remote console connected via telnet protocol, there is no way to get the actual terminal dimensions to the user’s shell.

EDIT: Just to add that if the user changes the dimensions of his/her xterm on Linux after launching a Java app, the Java app won’t be notified, and it won’t see the new dimensions reflected in its copy of the LINES and COLUMNS environment variables!

EDIT 2: My mistake: LINES and COLUMNS are bash shell variables, and they are not exported to the environment by default. You can “fix” this by running export COLUMNS LINES before you run your Java application.

More Related Contents:

  1. Java input from console
  2. How to read a single char from the console in Java (as the user types it)?
  3. How to clear the console?
  4. JUnit test for System.out.println()
  5. System.out.println and System.err.println out of order
  6. What’s a good Java, curses-like, library for terminal applications? [closed]
  7. System.console() returns null
  8. Why doesn’t “System.out.println” work in Android?
  9. java.io.Console support in Eclipse IDE
  10. How to write console output to a txt file
  11. Create Java console inside a GUI panel
  12. Redirect console output to string in Java
  13. Masking password input from the console : Java
  14. How can I create table using ASCII in a console?
  15. Getting Keyboard Input
  16. Get key press without pressing enter in console
  17. In Java is it possible to re-open System.in after closing it
  18. Making a log4j console appender use different colors for different threads
  19. Writing to console and text file
  20. How can I check if a Java program’s input/output streams are connected to a terminal?
  21. Java, UTF-8, and Windows console
  22. Java: How to detect (and change?) encoding of System.console?
  23. Default character encoding for java console output
  24. Java: Updating text in the command-line without a new line
  25. Colorize logs in eclipse console
  26. How to align String on console output
  27. How could I read Java Console Output into a String buffer
  28. making a jar file for console
  29. How to clear the console using Java?
  30. Clear console screen in Java [duplicate]

Leave a Comment