How to Create a Progress Bar in Python

In this short guide, you’ll see how to create a progress bar in Python using the tqdm package. You’ll also observe how to add a GUI to track your progress.

Steps to Create a Progress Bar in Python

Step 1: Install the tqdm package

To begin, install the tqdm package using this syntax:

pip install tqdm

You may check the following guide for the instructions to install a package in Python using pip.

Step 2: Write the Python code

Let’s write a simple Python code to:

Create a list with 5 items; and
Apply 2 seconds delay before printing each item when iterating over the list

import time

my_list = ['aaa', 'bbb', 'ccc', 'ddd', 'eee']

for i in my_list:
    time.sleep(2)
    print(i)

After about 10 seconds (5 items * 2 seconds per item), all the items in the list would be printed:

aaa
bbb
ccc
ddd
eee

Step 3: Create the Progress Bar in Python

In order to create the progress bar in Python, simply add the highlighted syntax into the code:

from tqdm import tqdm
tqdm(my_list)

So the complete Python code would look like this:

import time
from tqdm import tqdm

my_list = ['aaa', 'bbb', 'ccc', 'ddd', 'eee']

for i in tqdm(my_list):
    time.sleep(2)
    print(i)

You’ll now see the progress bar, which should take about 10 seconds to complete.

Step 4 (optional): Add a GUI to track your progress

You may also include a GUI to display your progress bar visually.

You’ll need to change the syntax in two places:

from tqdm import tqdm_gui
tqdm_gui(my_list)

So the complete Python code would look like this:

import time
from tqdm import tqdm_gui

my_list = ['aaa', 'bbb', 'ccc', 'ddd', 'eee']

for i in tqdm_gui(my_list):
    time.sleep(2)
    print(i)

You’ll now see the GUI with the progress bar.

Progress Bar with a List Comprehension

Optionally, you may also find it useful to add a progress bar when dealing with a list comprehension:

import time
from tqdm import tqdm_gui

my_list = ['aaa', 'bbb', 'ccc', 'ddd', 'eee']
my_list = [(time.sleep(2), print(i)) for i in tqdm_gui(my_list)]

Run the code, and you’ll get the same GUI as before.