Getting Python
Jul 7, 2023
DataSciencePursuit
For the best coding experience, there are two things you should get: Python and a separate application that can make writing code easier. Our application of choice for data science is Jupyter. Either Jupyter Notebook or JupyterLab. When you install Python, it does come with a simple code editor, but Jupyter makes coding much easier. You can compare this to writing in Notepad vs. writing in Microsoft Word. Jupyter being more like Microsoft Word.
What is Jupyter Notebook?
Jupyter Notebook is a web-based application that allows us to interactively write and run code for Python and other programming languages. It displays results directly under each code section you run. This includes numbers, text, graphs, images, tables, error messages, etc. It also allows you to document or put comments for your code, with different format options, all on the same page.
These features are unique to notebook-type applications, and they have made notebooks, in general, the preferred choice for many data scientists.
Jupyter Notebook also includes features like code completion and syntax error highlighting.
What is JupyterLab?
JupyterLab is a more advanced web-based environment for editing Jupyter Notebooks. It offers more features and flexibility compared to just using Jupyter Notebooks. We will work with JupyterLab in this course.
Just an FYI, there are other applications you can use, either code editors or integrated development environments (IDEs). We will see some of those briefly a little later.
Getting Python
There are different options to get Python. You can run Python for free online (recommended for beginners) or download Python on your computer. Using Python online is the easier option since little or no setup is required. However, installing Python on your computer will give you more control. We will mostly be using the downloaded version of Python and JupyterLab, but the experience should be the same online for our top recommendation.
Choose the option you would like below to see the written instructions or watch the video (there are chapters to help you go straight to the one you want to see).
Full video instructions
Next, learn how to run Python as a calculator in JupyterLab.