Visual Studio Code Python Interpreter | Code Actions

Next steps

• Python environments – Control which Python interpreter is used for editing and debugging.
• Editing code – Learn about autocomplete, IntelliSense, formatting, and refactoring for Python.
• Linting – Enable, configure, and apply a variety of Python linters.
• Debugging – Learn to debug Python both locally and remotely.
• Testing – Configure test environments and discover, run, and debug tests.

Install Python interpreters

There are several options for installing Python interpreters to work with Visual Studio. You can install an interpreter when you install the Python workload, or you can install an interpreter after a workload is present. Interpreters can also be installed manually outside of the Visual Studio Installer.

When you install the Python development workload in Visual Studio 2017 and later, Python 3 (64-bit) also installs by default. As an option, you can choose to install the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Python 2 or Python 3, along with Miniconda (Visual Studio 2019) or Anaconda 2/Anaconda 3 (Visual Studio 2017). The steps for this type of installation are described in Install Python support in Visual Studio.

An alternate approach is to install standard Python interpreters by using the Add Environment feature in Visual Studio. This option is available in the Python Environments window and the Python toolbar.

Python interpreters can also be installed manually outside of the Visual Studio Installer. Suppose you install Anaconda 3 before you install Visual Studio. You don’t need to reinstall Anaconda through the Visual Studio Installer. You can also install a newer version of an interpreter if it isn’t yet listed in the Visual Studio Installer.

Types of Python environments

Global environments

By default, any Python interpreter installed runs in its own global environment. For example, if you just run

python

,

python3

, or

py

at a new terminal (depending on how you installed Python), you’re running in that interpreter’s global environment. Any packages that you install or uninstall affect the global environment and all programs that you run within it.

Tip: In Python, it is best practice to create a workspace-specific environment, for example, by using a local environment.

Local environments

There are two types of environments that you can create for your workspace: virtual and conda. These environments allow you to install packages without affecting other environments, isolating your workspace’s package installations.

Virtual environments

A virtual environment is a built-in way to create an environment. A virtual environment creates a folder that contains a copy (or symlink) to a specific interpreter. When you install packages into a virtual environment it will end up in this new folder, and thus isolated from other packages used by other workspaces.

Note: While it’s possible to open a virtual environment folder as a workspace, doing so is not recommended and might cause issues with using the Python extension.

Conda environments

A conda environment is a Python environment that’s managed using the

conda

package manager (see Getting started with conda).Choosing between conda and virtual environments depends on your packaging needs, team standards, etc.

Python environment tools

The following table lists the various tools involved with Python environments:

Talk To The Interpreter

One benefit of the interpreter is that you can start an interactive session with the interpreter and type Python code right into it to see what it does. This is a great way to try out code ideas.

For example, what happens if you use with strings or with lists? Here is an interpreter session trying that way. The

>>>

is the prompt, the bold text is what you type, followed by the interpreter’s response on the next line.

>>> ‘hello’ + ‘!’ ‘hello!’ >>> [1, 2] + [3, 4] [1, 2, 3, 4] >>>

You could look up the formal description of , but just typing an experiment in the interpreter to see what it does is quick and satisfying.

Incidentally,

>>>

examples like the above are used throughout these pages to show phrases of Python code with their output. You can always start your own interpreter session to replicate and play with these experiments yourself.

Phản hồi

Gửi và xem ý kiến phản hồi dành cho

Enable Visual Studio Code to seamlessly identify the correct runtime for your project, letting you leverage the security and compliance features inherent in the ActiveState project within your integrated development environment (IDE).

Before using your ActiveState project’s Python interpreter in your VS Code environment, make sure the following conditions are met:


state update. If you have installed the State Tool after opening VS Code you will need to restart VS Code for the changes to take effect.


The following will help you integrate Visual Studio Code with your ActiveState project.

Begin by creating a Python file in your project, or opening an existing Python file. If this is a new file you may be prompted to select an interpreter, or if it is an existing file you can select a new interpreter using the VS Code Command Palette.

To access the “Select Interpreter” drop-down from the Command Palette

This will automatically generate a list of all of the interpreters currently available on your machine (including those provided by ActiveState). Click to select your preferred interpreter and begin working on your file.

After making your selection your new interpreter will be displayed at the bottom of the VS Code window (“andrewd-activestate/PythonWindows3’:ActiveState” shown above).

If your ActiveState Python interpreter is not immediately available in the “Select Interpreter” dropdown:


python.activeStateToolPathunder the “Settings” list.


$PATHor


%PATH%variable. To enter the absolute path to the State Tool’s executable go to File > Preferences> Settings and search for ”State Tool”. Enter the absolute path to the State Tool executable in the field shown.



state projects


How to Change the Python Interpreter in VS Code

The Python interpreter is a programming language which can be used in Visual Studio Code. It comes in different versions with different features and capabilities. The default version usually comes with Python when you install it on your computer. However, you can have multiple versions installed on your device, and you can choose between them if you need to change the interpreter.

In this article, we’ll explain how to change the Python interpreter in VS Code.

Configure and run the debugger

Let’s now try debugging our Python program. Debugging support is provided by the Python Debugger extension, which is automatically installed with the Python extension. To ensure it has been installed correctly, open the Extensions view (⇧⌘X (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+X)) and search for

@installed python debugger

. You should see the Python Debugger extension listed in the results.

Next, set a breakpoint on line 2 of

hello.py

by placing the cursor on the

Next, to initialize the debugger, press F5. Since this is your first time debugging this file, a configuration menu will open from the Command Palette allowing you to select the type of debug configuration you would like for the opened file.

Note: VS Code uses JSON files for all of its various configurations;


launch.json

is the standard name for a file containing debugging configurations.

Select Python File, which is the configuration that runs the current file shown in the editor using the currently selected Python interpreter.

The debugger will start, and then stop at the first line of the file breakpoint. The current line is indicated with a yellow arrow in the left margin. If you examine the Local variables window at this point, you can see that the

msg

variable appears in the Local pane.

A debug toolbar appears along the top with the following commands from left to right: continue (F5), step over (F10), step into (F11), step out (⇧F11 (Windows, Linux Shift+F11)), restart (⇧⌘F5 (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+F5)), and stop (⇧F5 (Windows, Linux Shift+F5)).

The Status Bar also changes color (orange in many themes) to indicate that you’re in debug mode. The Python Debug Console also appears automatically in the lower right panel to show the commands being run, along with the program output.

To continue running the program, select the continue command on the debug toolbar (F5). The debugger runs the program to the end.

Tip Debugging information can also be seen by hovering over code, such as variables. In the case of


msg

, hovering over the variable will display the string

Roll a dice!

in a box above the variable.

You can also work with variables in the Debug Console (If you don’t see it, select Debug Console in the lower right area of VS Code, or select it from the … menu.) Then try entering the following lines, one by one, at the > prompt at the bottom of the console:


msg msg.capitalize() msg.split()


Select the blue Continue button on the toolbar again (or press F5) to run the program to completion. “Roll a dice!” appears in the Python Debug Console if you switch back to it, and VS Code exits debugging mode once the program is complete.

If you restart the debugger, the debugger again stops on the first breakpoint.

To stop running a program before it’s complete, use the red square stop button on the debug toolbar (⇧F5 (Windows, Linux Shift+F5)), or use the Run > Stop debugging menu command.

For full details, see Debugging configurations, which includes notes on how to use a specific Python interpreter for debugging.

Tip: Use Logpoints instead of print statements: Developers often litter source code with

Run Python code

Click the Run Python File in Terminal play button in the top-right side of the editor.

The button opens a terminal panel in which your Python interpreter is automatically activated, then runs

python3 hello.py

(macOS/Linux) or

python hello.py

(Windows):

There are three other ways you can run Python code within VS Code:

1. Right-click anywhere in the editor window and select Run > Python File in Terminal (which saves the file automatically):

2. Select one or more lines, then press Shift+Enter or right-click and select Run Selection/Line in Python Terminal. This command is convenient for testing just a part of a file.

3. From the Command Palette (⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)), select the Python: Start REPL command to open a REPL terminal for the currently selected Python interpreter. In the REPL, you can then enter and run lines of code one at a time.

Congrats, you just ran your first Python code in Visual Studio Code!

Environment variables

Environment variable definitions file

An environment variable definitions file is a text file containing key-value pairs in the form of

environment_variable=value

, with used for comments. Multiline values aren’t supported, but references to previously defined environment variables are allowed. Environment variable definitions files can be used for scenarios such as debugging and tool execution (including linters, formatters, IntelliSense, and testing tools), but aren’t applied to the terminal.

Note: Environment variable definitions files are not necessarily cross-platform. For instance, while Unix uses

as a path separator in environment variables, Windows uses. There is no normalization of such operating system differences, and so you need to make sure any environment definitions file use values that are compatible with your operating system.

By default, the Python extension looks for and loads a file named

.env

in the current workspace folder, then applies those definitions. The file is identified by the default entry

"python.envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/.env"

in your user settings (see General Python settings). You can change the

python.envFile

setting at any time to use a different definitions file.

Note: Environment variable definitions files are not used in all situations where environment variables are available for use. Unless Visual Studio Code documentation states otherwise, these only affect certain scenarios as per their definition. For example, the extension doesn’t use environment variable definitions files when resolving setting values.

A debug configuration also contains an

envFile

property that also defaults to the

.env

file in the current workspace (see Debugging – Set configuration options). This property allows you to easily set variables for debugging purposes that replace variables specified in the default

.env

file.

For example, when developing a web application, you might want to easily switch between development and production servers. Instead of coding the different URLs and other settings into your application directly, you could use separate definitions files for each. For example:

dev.env file


# dev.env - development configuration # API endpoint MYPROJECT_APIENDPOINT=https://my.domain.com/api/dev/ # Variables for the database MYPROJECT_DBURL=https://my.domain.com/db/dev MYPROJECT_DBUSER=devadmin MYPROJECT_DBPASSWORD=!dfka**213=


prod.env file


# prod.env - production configuration # API endpoint MYPROJECT_APIENDPOINT=https://my.domain.com/api/ # Variables for the database MYPROJECT_DBURL=https://my.domain.com/db/ MYPROJECT_DBUSER=coreuser MYPROJECT_DBPASSWORD=kKKfa98*11@


You can then set the

python.envFile

setting to

${workspaceFolder}/prod.env

, then set the

envFile

property in the debug configuration to

${workspaceFolder}/dev.env

.

Note: When environment variables are specified using multiple methods, be aware that there is an order of precedence. All


env

variables defined in the

launch.json

file will override variables contained in the

.env

file, specified by the

python.envFile

setting (user or workspace). Similarly,

env

variables defined in the

launch.json

file will override the environment variables defined in the

envFile

that are specified in

launch.json

.

Use of the PYTHONPATH variable

The PYTHONPATH environment variable specifies additional locations where the Python interpreter should look for modules. In VS Code, PYTHONPATH can be set through the terminal settings (

terminal.integrated.env.*

) and/or within an

.env

file.

When the terminal settings are used, PYTHONPATH affects any tools that are run within the terminal by a user, as well as any action the extension performs for a user that is routed through the terminal such as debugging. However, in this case when the extension is performing an action that isn’t routed through the terminal, such as the use of a linter or formatter, then this setting won’t have an effect on module look-up.

Working with Python interpreters

Select and activate an environment

The Python extension tries to find and then select what it deems the best environment for the workspace. If you would prefer to select a specific environment, use the Python: Select Interpreter command from the Command Palette (⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)).

Note: If the Python extension doesn’t find an interpreter, it issues a warning. On macOS 12.2 and older, the extension also issues a warning if you’re using the OS-installed Python interpreter as it is known to have compatibility issues. In either case, you can disable these warnings by setting


python.disableInstallationCheck

to

true

in your user settings.

The Python: Select Interpreter command displays a list of available global environments, conda environments, and virtual environments. (See the Where the extension looks for environments section for details, including the distinctions between these types of environments.) The following image, for example, shows several Anaconda and CPython installations along with a conda environment and a virtual environment (

env

) that’s located within the workspace folder:

Note: On Windows, it can take a little time for VS Code to detect available conda environments. During that process, you may see “(cached)” before the path to an environment. The label indicates that VS Code is presently working with cached information for that environment.

If you have a folder or a workspace open in VS Code and you select an interpreter from the list, the Python extension will store that information internally. This ensures that the same interpreter will be used when you reopen the workspace.

The selected environment is used by the Python extension for running Python code (using the Python: Run Python File in Terminal command), providing language services (auto-complete, syntax checking, linting, formatting, etc.) when you have a

.py

file open in the editor, and opening a terminal with the Terminal: Create New Terminal command. In the latter case, VS Code automatically activates the selected environment.

Tip: To prevent automatic activation of a selected environment, add


"python.terminal.activateEnvironment": false

to your

settings.json

file (it can be placed anywhere as a sibling to the existing settings).

Tip: If the activate command generates the message “Activate.ps1 is not digitally signed. You cannot run this script on the current system.”, then you need to temporarily change the PowerShell execution policy to allow scripts to run (see About Execution Policies in the PowerShell documentation):


Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process


Note: By default, VS Code uses the interpreter selected for your workspace when debugging code. You can override this behavior by specifying a different path in the


python

property of a debug configuration. See Choose a debugging environment.

The selected interpreter version will show on the right side of the Status Bar.

The Status Bar also reflects when no interpreter is selected.

In either case, clicking this area of the Status Bar is a convenient shortcut for the Python: Select Interpreter command.

Tip: If you have any problems with VS Code recognizing a virtual environment, please file an issue so we can help determine the cause.

Manually specify an interpreter

If VS Code doesn’t automatically locate an interpreter you want to use, you can browse for the interpreter on your file system or provide the path to it manually.

You can do so by running the Python: Select Interpreter command and select the Enter interpreter path… option that shows on the top of the interpreters list:

You can then either enter the full path of the Python interpreter directly in the text box (for example, “.venv/Scripts/python.exe”), or you can select the Find… button and browse your file system to find the python executable you wish to select.

If you want to manually specify a default interpreter that will be used when you first open your workspace, you can create or modify an entry for the

python.defaultInterpreterPath

setting.

Note: Changes to the


python.defaultInterpreterPath

setting are not picked up after an interpreter has already been selected for a workspace; any changes to the setting will be ignored once an initial interpreter is selected for the workspace.

Additionally, if you’d like to set up a default interpreter to all of your Python applications, you can add an entry for

python.defaultInterpreterPath

manually inside your User Settings. To do so, open the Command Palette (⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)) and enter Preferences: Open User Settings. Then set

python.defaultInterpreterPath

, which is in the Python extension section of User Settings, with the appropriate interpreter.

How the extension chooses an environment automatically

If an interpreter hasn’t been specified, then the Python extension automatically selects the interpreter with the highest version in the following priority order:

1. Virtual environments located directly under the workspace folder.
2. Virtual environments related to the workspace but stored globally. For example, Pipenv or Poetry environments that are located outside of the workspace folder.
3. Globally installed interpreters. For example, the ones found in
   
/usr/local/bin

   ,
   
C:\\python38

   , etc.

Note: The interpreter selected may differ from what


python

refers to in your terminal.

If Visual Studio Code doesn’t locate your interpreter automatically, you can manually specify an interpreter.

Where the extension looks for environments

The extension automatically looks for interpreters in the following locations, in no particular order:

• Standard install paths such as
  
/usr/local/bin

  ,
  
/usr/sbin

  ,
  
/sbin

  ,
  
c:\\python36

  , etc.
• Virtual environments located directly under the workspace (project) folder.
• Virtual environments located in the folder identified by the
  
python.venvPath

  setting (see General Python settings), which can contain multiple virtual environments. The extension looks for virtual environments in the first-level subfolders of
  
venvPath

  .
• Virtual environments located in a
  
~/.virtualenvs

  folder for virtualenvwrapper.
• Interpreters created by pyenv, Pipenv, and Poetry.
• Virtual environments located in the path identified by
  
WORKON_HOME

  (as used by virtualenvwrapper).
• Conda environments found by
  
conda env list

  . Conda environments which do not have an interpreter will have one installed for them upon selection.
• Interpreters installed in a
  
.direnv

  folder for direnv under the workspace folder.

Environments and Terminal windows

After using Python: Select Interpreter, that interpreter is applied when right-clicking a file and selecting Python: Run Python File in Terminal. The environment is also activated automatically when you use the Terminal: Create New Terminal command unless you change the

python.terminal.activateEnvironment

setting to

false

.

Please note that launching VS Code from a shell in which a specific Python environment is activated doesn’t automatically activate that environment in the default Integrated Terminal.

Note: conda environments cannot be automatically activated in the integrated terminal if PowerShell is set as the integrated shell. See Integrated terminal – Terminal profiles for how to change the shell.

Changing interpreters with the Python: Select Interpreter command doesn’t affect terminal panels that are already open. Thus, you can activate separate environments in a split terminal: select the first interpreter, create a terminal for it, select a different interpreter, then use the split button (⌘\ (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+5)) in the terminal title bar.

Choose a debugging environment

By default, the debugger will use the Python interpreter chosen with the Python extension. However, if there is a

python

property specified in the debug configuration of

launch.json

, it takes precedence. If this property is not defined, it will fall back to using the Python interpreter path selected for the workspace.

For more details on debug configuration, see Debugging configurations.

Review Python interpreters

The following table lists Python interpreters that can be used with Visual Studio.

Debugging

No more

For more specific information on debugging in Python, such as configuring your

launch.json

settings and implementing remote debugging, see Debugging. General VS Code debugging information is found in the debugging document.

Additionally, the Django and Flask tutorials provide examples of how to implement debugging in the context of web applications, including debugging Django templates.

Interpreter Hacks: dir help

What are all the functions that the

str

type has? You could look it up, but it’s also possible in the interpreter to pull the list of function names directly out of Python this (

str

is the name of the built-int string type):

>>> dir(str) [‘__add__’, ‘__class__’, ‘__contains__’, ‘__delattr__’, ‘__dir__’, ‘__doc__’, ‘__eq__’, ‘__format__’, ‘__ge__’, ‘__getattribute__’, ‘__getitem__’, ‘__getnewargs__’, ‘__gt__’, ‘__hash__’, ‘__init__’, ‘__init_subclass__’, ‘__iter__’, ‘__le__’, ‘__len__’, ‘__lt__’, ‘__mod__’, ‘__mul__’, ‘__ne__’, ‘__new__’, ‘__reduce__’, ‘__reduce_ex__’, ‘__repr__’, ‘__rmod__’, ‘__rmul__’, ‘__setattr__’, ‘__sizeof__’, ‘__str__’, ‘__subclasshook__’, ‘capitalize’, ‘casefold’, ‘center’, ‘count’, ‘encode’, ‘endswith’, ‘expandtabs’, ‘find’, ‘format’, ‘format_map’, ‘index’, ‘isalnum’, ‘isalpha’, ‘isascii’, ‘isdecimal’, ‘isdigit’, ‘isidentifier’, ‘islower’, ‘isnumeric’, ‘isprintable’, ‘isspace’, ‘istitle’, ‘isupper’, ‘join’, ‘ljust’, ‘lower’, ‘lstrip’, ‘maketrans’, ‘partition’, ‘replace’, ‘rfind’, ‘rindex’, ‘rjust’, ‘rpartition’, ‘rsplit’, ‘rstrip’, ‘split’, ‘splitlines’, ‘startswith’, ‘strip’, ‘swapcase’, ‘title’, ‘translate’, ‘upper’, ‘zfill’]

The above is not the most pretty form of the data, as we’re just dumping the names of Python’s internal structure. Names that begin with 2 underbars like

__add__

are special internal functions that code does not normally need to know about. You can see regular functions like

lower()

and ‘find()` in the list.

With the special help function, you can pull up the PyDoc for each function (the triple-quote comments for a function). To refer to a function within the

str

type use the form

str.find

. Note that the function name is not followed by parenthesis – this is the unusual case of referring to a function but not calling it.

>>> help(str.find) find(…) S.find(sub[, start[, end]]) -> int Return the lowest index in S where substring sub is found, such that sub is contained within S[start:end]. Optional arguments start and end are interpreted as in slice notation. Return -1 on failure.

Copyright 2020 Nick Parlante

Python in Visual Studio Code

Working with Python in Visual Studio Code, using the Microsoft Python extension, is simple, fun, and productive. The extension makes VS Code an excellent Python editor, and works on any operating system with a variety of Python interpreters. It leverages all of VS Code’s power to provide auto complete and IntelliSense, linting, debugging, and unit testing, along with the ability to easily switch between Python environments, including virtual and conda environments.

This article provides only an overview of the different capabilities of the Python extension for VS Code. For a walkthrough of editing, running, and debugging code, use the button below.

Run, debug, and test

Now that you are more familiar with Python in VS Code, let’s learn how to run, debug, and test your code.

Run

There are a few ways to run Python code in VS Code.

To run the Python script you have open on the editor, select the Run Python File in Terminal play button in the top-right of the editor.

There are also additional ways you can iteratively run snippets of your Python code within VS Code:

• Select one or more lines, then press Shift+Enter or right-click and select Run Selection/Line in Python Terminal. This command is convenient for testing just a part of a file.
• From the Command Palette (⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)), select the Python: Start REPL command to open a REPL terminal for the currently selected Python interpreter. In the REPL, you can then enter and run lines of code one at a time.

Debug

The debugger is a helpful tool that allows you to inspect the flow of your code execution and more easily identify errors, as well as explore how your variables and data change as your program is run. You can start debugging by setting a breakpoint in your Python project by clicking in the gutter next to the line you wish to inspect.

To start debugging, initialize the debugger by pressing F5. Since this is your first time debugging this file, a configuration menu will open allowing you to select the type of application you want to debug. If it’s a Python script, you can select Python File.

Once your program reaches the breakpoint, it will stop and allow you to track data in the Python Debug console, and progress through your program using the debug toolbar.

For a deeper dive into Python debugging functionality, see Python debugging in VS Code.

Test

The Python extension provides robust testing support for Unittest and pytest.

You can configure Python tests through the Testing view on the Activity Bar by selecting Configure Python Tests and selecting your test framework of choice.

You can also create tests for your Python project, which the Python extension will attempt to discover once your framework of choice is configured. The Python extension also allows you to run and debug your tests in the Testing view and inspect the test run output in the Test Results panel.

For a comprehensive look at testing functionality, see Python testing in VS Code.

Next steps

To learn how to build web apps with popular Python web frameworks, see the following tutorials:

There is then much more to explore with Python in Visual Studio Code:

• Python profile template – Create a new profile with a curated set of extensions, settings, and snippets
• Editing code – Learn about autocomplete, IntelliSense, formatting, and refactoring for Python.
• Linting – Enable, configure, and apply a variety of Python linters.
• Debugging – Learn to debug Python both locally and remotely.
• Testing – Configure test environments and discover, run, and debug tests.
• Settings reference – Explore the full range of Python-related settings in VS Code.
• Deploy Python to Azure App Service
• Deploy Python to Container Apps

Quick Start Guide for Python in VS Code

The Python extension makes Visual Studio Code an excellent Python editor, works on any operating system, and is usable with a variety of Python interpreters.

Get started by installing:

• VS Code
• A Python Interpreter (any actively supported Python version)
• Python extension from the VS Code Marketplace

To further customize VS Code for Python, you can leverage the Python profile template, automatically installing recommended extensions and settings. For Data Science projects, consider using the Data Science profile template.

How to Change the Python Interpreter in VS Code on Windows or Linux

Changing the Python interpreter in VS Code is a straightforward process that can be completed in just a few steps.

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Press “Ctrl + Shift + P” to open the Command Palette. You can easily access VS Code commands and features through the Command Palette.
2. Start typing “
   
Python: Select Interpreter

   ” and press Enter. You’ll open a list on Python interpreters available on your device if you have multiple versions installed. If the Python extension doesn’t locate an interpreter, it displays a warning.
3. Click on the Python Interpreter you want to use. VS Code will show the selected interpreter in the Status Bar at the bottom right part of the screen. It serves as a shortcut for the “
   
Python: Select Interpreter

   ” command and shows when no interpreter is selected as well. You can also check if the correct version is being used by opening a Python file.

General Python settings

Environments

The Python extension automatically detects Python interpreters that are installed in standard locations. It also detects conda environments as well as virtual environments in the workspace folder. See Configuring Python environments.

The current environment is shown on the right side of the VS Code Status Bar:

The Status Bar also indicates if no interpreter is selected:

The selected environment is used for IntelliSense, auto-completions, linting, formatting, and any other language-related feature. It is also activated when you run or debug Python in a terminal, or when you create a new terminal with the Terminal: Create New Terminal command.

To change the current interpreter, which includes switching to conda or virtual environments, select the interpreter name on the Status Bar or use the Python: Select Interpreter command.

VS Code prompts you with a list of detected environments as well as any you’ve added manually to your user settings (see Configuring Python environments).

Python profile template

Profiles let you quickly switch your extensions, settings, and UI layout depending on your current project or task. To help you get started with Python development, you can use the Python profile template, which is a curated profile with useful extensions, settings, and snippets. You can use the profile template as is or use it as a starting point to customize further for you own workflows.

You select a profile template through the Profiles > Create Profile… dropdown:

Once you select a profile template, you can review the settings and extensions, and remove individual items if you don’t want to include them in your new Profile. After creating the new profile based on the template, changes made to settings, extensions, or UI are persisted in your profile.

Code Actions

Code Actions (also known as Quick Fixes) are provided to help fix issues when there are warnings in your code. These helpful hints are displayed in the editor left margin as a lightbulb (💡). Select the light bulb to display Code Action options. These Code Action can come from extensions such as Python, Pylance, or VS Code itself. For more information about Code Actions, see Python Quick Fixes.

How to create and open a Python project or file

If you have an existing Python project you wish to work on in VS Code, you can begin by opening your folder or file from the VS Code Welcome page or File Explorer view, or by selecting File > Open Folder (Ctrl+K Ctrl+O) or File > Open File (⌘O (Windows, Linux Ctrl+O)).

You can create a new Python file by selecting New File on the VS Code Welcome page and then selecting Python file, or by navigating to File > New File ().

Tip: If you already have a workspace folder open in VS Code, you can add new files or folders directly into your existing project. You can create new folders and files by using the corresponding New Folder or New File icons on the top level folder in the File Explorer view.

Testing

The Python extension supports testing with Python’s built-in unittest framework and pytest.

In order to run tests, you must enable one of the supported testing frameworks in the settings of your project. Each framework has its own specific settings, such as arguments for identifying the paths and patterns for test discovery.

Once the tests have been discovered, VS Code provides a variety of commands (on the Status Bar, the Command Palette, and elsewhere) to run and debug tests. These commands also allow you to run individual test files and methods

Install and use packages

Let’s build upon the previous example by using packages.

In Python, packages are how you obtain any number of useful code libraries, typically from PyPI, that provide additional functionality to your program. For this example, you use the

numpy

package to generate a random number.

Return to the Explorer view (the top-most icon on the left side, which shows files), open

hello.py

, and paste in the following source code:


import numpy as np msg = "Roll a dice" print(msg) print(np.random.randint(1,9))


Tip: If you enter the above code by hand, you may find that auto-completions change the names after the


as

keywords when you press Enter at the end of a line. To avoid this, type a space, then Enter.

Next, run the file in the debugger using the “Python: Current file” configuration as described in the last section.

You should see the message, “ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘numpy'”. This message indicates that the required package isn’t available in your interpreter. If you’re using an Anaconda distribution or have previously installed the

numpy

package you may not see this message.

To install the

numpy

package, stop the debugger and use the Command Palette to run Terminal: Create New Terminal (⌃⇧` (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+`)). This command opens a command prompt for your selected interpreter.

To install the required packages in your virtual environment, enter the following commands as appropriate for your operating system:

1. Install the packages

   
# Don't use with Anaconda distributions because they include matplotlib already. # macOS python3 -m pip install numpy # Windows (may require elevation) py -m pip install numpy # Linux (Debian) apt-get install python3-tk python3 -m pip install numpy


2. Now, rerun the program, with or without the debugger, to view the output!

Congrats on completing the Python tutorial! During the course of this tutorial, you learned how to create a Python project, create a virtual environment, run and debug your Python code, and install Python packages. Explore additional resources to learn how to get the most out of Python in Visual Studio Code!

Intro to CS at Harvey Mudd College

Professor Zachary Dodds is a Computer Science professor at Harvey Mudd College who teaches several introductory classes both for students new to Computer Science and students from a non-Computer Science background. He co-created the popular introduction to Computer Science class CS5, which attracts students from all backgrounds to develop programming and problem-solving skills and to build “a coherent, intellectually compelling picture of Computer Science”. The class is taught with Python and uses VS Code as the recommended editor.

Why Visual Studio Code?

Professor Dodds has been recommending and using Visual Studio Code in his classes since it debuted in 2015.

“Visual Studio Code is the best balance of authenticity and accessibility… Visual Studio Code doesn’t feel ‘fake’, it’s what real software developers use. Plus, Visual Studio Code works on every OS!”

VS Code runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, and even Chromebooks.

Classroom settings

Since VS Code is easy to customize, Professor Dodds is able to tailor the editor for his students, preferring to hide IntelliSense, or code completion suggestions, so they can learn from what they type and reinforce the conceptual models being built.

Here are the settings his students use:


"editor.quickSuggestions": false, "editor.acceptSuggestionOnCommitCharacter": false, "editor.suggest.filterGraceful": true, "editor.suggestOnTriggerCharacters": false, "editor.acceptSuggestionOnEnter": "on", "editor.suggest.showIcons": false, "editor.suggest.maxVisibleSuggestions": 7, "editor.hover.enabled": false, "editor.hover.sticky": false, "editor.suggest.snippetsPreventQuickSuggestions": false, "editor.parameterHints.enabled": false, "editor.wordBasedSuggestions": "matchingDocuments", "editor.tabCompletion": "on", "extensions.ignoreRecommendations": true, "files.autoSave": "afterDelay",


You can find the most up-to-date settings on his course website: CS5 – Python Tips.

Integrated Terminal

Professor Dodds also utilizes the built-in terminal heavily in his class as an introduction to running programs from the command line and navigating around their machine all within Visual Studio Code. He appreciates how “the built-in terminal panel does not try to automate too much (which, if it did, would deprive newcomers of the experience of the information-flow that’s going on).”

In the video below, the student does all of their command line and coding work in one place, such as installing Python libraries, while working on Lab 3 from the CS5 class:

Thank you, Professor Dodds, for sharing your story! If you’re interested in using VS Code to teach Python in your classes, you can get started with the Python Education Extension Pack below!

Enhance completions with AI

GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered code completion tool that helps you write code faster and smarter. You can use the GitHub Copilot extension in VS Code to generate code, or to learn from the code it generates.

GitHub Copilot provides suggestions for languages beyond Python and a wide variety of frameworks, including JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, C# and C++.

You can learn more about how to get started with Copilot in the Copilot documentation.

Achieve More with the Right Python Interpreter

Learning how to change the Python interpreter will allow you to switch between your installed Python versions, use virtual environments to manage your Python dependencies, use a specific Python distribution, and more. Following the steps outlined in this article, you’ll learn how to easily switch between different Python interpreters to suit your needs.

Have you already tried changing Python Interpreter in VS Code? Did you use any of the tips outlined in this article? Tell us in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: Some pages on this site may include an affiliate link. This does not effect our editorial in any way.