How do I erase printed characters in a console application(Linux)?

Question

I am creating a small console app that needs a progress bar. Something like...

Conversion: 175/348 Seconds   |==========          |  50%

My

Answer 1

to erase a previously printed character, I print a backspace after it: print "a" print "\b"

will print nothing (actually it will print and then a backspace, but you probably won't notice it)