An introduction to Jupyter Notebooks

Basic Git Information

This a GitHub repository, essentially a remote version of my working directory on my laptop. You can easily copy everything from this repo using the command

git clone [email protected]:zekemorton/jupyterIntro.git

This will create a new folder within the current directory named jupyterIntro and that folder will contain all of the fils within this repository.

Git is considered version control software and is a great tool for collaboration and to keep a history of all changes made to the repository.

Let me know if you are interested in getting more information on git.

Basic Python configuration

First, ensure that python3 is installed by running

python3 --version

If installed correctly, it should display the version number, and look similar to this.

Python 3.6.4

Creating a Virtual Environment

The next thing is to create a python virtual environment. This is an important step because different projects may require libraries with different versions, and it can be a nightmare to manage this if you install all of your libraries globally. To remedy this, we create python virtual environments. This is essentially a local installation of all library packages that you may need to use, and you create one for each project. I usually name all of my virtual environments venv and store them in the top most folder of the project.

To create a virtual environment use the command

python3 -m venv <path/to/environment>

This command creates a virtual environment named venv in the current directory.

python3 -m venv venv

Activating and Deactivating a Virtual Enviroment

Once you create your virtual environment, you need to let the bash interpreter know that you want to use that environment instead of the global one. You can do this with the source command.

source venv/bin/activate

Notice that after activating your venv, it will show up on your command prompt.

(venv) zekes-mbp:jupyterIntro zeke$

You can exit the virtual env at any time using the command deactivate on its own.

Installing Library Packages

In order to install packages, you must have your venv activated. pip is the most common python package manager and makes life pretty easy. To install a new library package, simply use the command pip install <package name>. Example for pandas:

pip install pandas

for juptyer:

pip install jupyterlab

for matplotlib:

pip install matplotlib

You can also install multiple libraries at once using a txt file with the libraries listed. These are often called requirements.txt.

pip install -r requirements.txt

Note that you were never prompted for a password to install these packages. This is because you are installing them directly into the virtual environment and not modifying any configuration files. When you are done with the project or if you are have any issues with the virtual environment, you can simply delete it without worrying about anything else breaking.

Running a Jupyter Notebook

Now that you have activated your venv and installed jupyter, simply run the command jupyter notebook and your jupyter server will start running and automatically open a browser!