Getting started with Jupyter Notebook - Python

Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations and narrative text. Jupyter supports for over 40 different programming languages and Python is one of them. Python is a requirement (Python 3.3 or greater or Python 2.7) for installing Jupyter Notebook itself.

Jupyter Notebook can be installed by using either of the two ways described below:

1. Install Jupyter Notebook with Anaconda

Install Python and Jupyter using Anaconda Distribution, which includes Python, Jupyter Notebook and other commonly used packages for scientific computing and data science. To install Anaconda, go through How to install Anaconda on Windows and follow the instructions provided.

2. Install Jupyter Notebook using PIP

Install Jupyter using PIP package manager used to install and manage software packages/libraries written in Python. To install pip, go through How to install PIP on Windows and follow the instructions provided.

Setup

Command to Launch Jupyter Notebook

jupyter notebook

This will start up Jupyter and your default browser should start (or open a new tab) to following URL: http://localhost:8888/tree

When notebook opens in your browser, you will see Notebook Dashboard, which will show a list of notebooks, files and subdirectories in the directory where notebook server was started. Often this will be your home directory:

Creating a Jupyter Notebook

Now on dashboard, you can see a new button at top right corner. Click it to open a drop-down list and then if you'll click on Python3, it will open a new notebook.

Renaming Jupyter Notebooks

We can notice that at the top of the page is the word Untitled. This is the title for the page and the name of your Notebook. We can change the name by simply clicking on it.

Run and Debug Jupyter Notebook Code Cell

Let’s try adding the following code to that cell:

Running a cell means that we want to execute the cell’s contents. To execute a cell, you can just select the cell and click Run button that is in the row of buttons along the top. It’s towards the middle.

Jupyter Notebook Menu Items

Jupyter Notebook contains a list of menus which can be used to perform various functions.

1. File: allows you to perform actions like creating and opening notebooks, saving your work, exporting notebooks in different formats, managing checkpoints and closing notebooks.
2. Edit: provides various editing options for the cells within your notebook. You can cut, copy, paste, delete, merge, split and manipulate cells using these edit functions.
3. View: provides options to control the appearance and layout of your notebook interface, allowing you to customize its display to your preferences and needs.
4. Insert: contains options for adding new cells and other elements to your notebook, allowing you to insert code, text or various types of content into your document.
5. Cell: provides options for manipulating individual cells within your notebook. You can use it to run, delete and modify cells, as well as change their cell type (e.g., code or markdown). This menu is essential for cell-level operations in your notebook.
6. Kernel: allows you to interrupt or restart the computation process, reconnect to a kernel and change the kernel (i.e., programming language and environment) for your notebook. It’s crucial for managing execution state of a Jupyter Notebook.
7. Widgets: used for working with interactive widgets, which are graphical elements that enhance interactivity and user experience of your notebook. You can use this menu to create, display and interact with widgets like buttons, sliders, text boxes and more.
8. Help: offers documentation and resources to assist users in understanding and using Jupyter Notebook effectively.

Open a Terminal in Jupyter

To open terminal go to the homepage and click on new and then select terminal from the drop down list.

Viewing What’s Running

Home page of your Jupyter server (http://localhost:8888/tree) has two other tabs: Running and Clusters. Running tab will tell us which Notebooks and Terminals we are currently running. This is useful for when you want to shut down your server but you need to make sure that you have saved all your data. 

Adding Rich Content in Jupyter Notebook

In Jupyter Notebook, we can add rich content to your notebooks to enhance their interactivity and visual appeal. Rich content includes text, images, LaTeX equations, HTML and multimedia elements like audio and video.

Types of Cells

Jupyter Notebook provides several cell types, these cell types enable you to create, edit and organize your content within a notebook. Here are main cell types in Jupyter:

• Code Cells: used to write and execute code. You can enter programming code in various languages, such as Python, Julia, or R and execute it within the notebook. The output of the code is displayed below the cell. To run a code cell, press Shift + Enter or click the "Run" button in the toolbar.
• Markdown Cells: contain formatted text using Markdown syntax. You can create headings, lists, tables and links, making it suitable for documentation and explanations. To render the Markdown content, press Shift + Enter.
• Raw Cells: used to include unprocessed, raw content. The content is not evaluated, formatted or executed. Raw cells are typically used for including content like LaTeX equations.
• Heading Cells: a type of markdown cell that is used to structure your notebook. They create section headings and subheadings, which are helpful for organizing your content.
• Raw NBConvert Cells: These are similar to raw cells but are intended for content that will be converted into other formats when the notebook is exported.

Exporting Jupyter Notebook

In Jupyter Notebook, we can export our notebooks in various formats to share with other people. Here's how we can export notebooks. The formats available are:

• HTML
• LaTeX
• PDF
• RevealJS
• Markdown
• ReStructured Text
• Executable script

Converting Notebooks to other Formats

The nbconvert is a utility that comes with Jupyter ecosystem and it's used for converting Jupyter Notebook files (.ipynb) to other formats like HTML, PDF, LaTeX, Markdown and more. It allows you to share your Jupyter Notebook content in various document formats, making it more accessible and easier to distribute to others.

Jupyter Notebooks as PDF

We can use nbconvert to create PDFs from your notebooks, which is useful for creating reports or presentations from your Jupyter Notebook content.

samplefile

To convert it into pdf we use command:

jupyter nbconvert untitled1.ipynb --to pdf

After running the command a pdf file is saved in the folder after getting converting from the Notebook.

Useful Commands in Jupyter Notebook

Command to open a notebook in the currently running notebook server:

jupyter notebook notebook_name.ipynb

By default, notebook server starts on port 8888. If port 8888 is unavailable or in use, notebook server searches next available port. You may also specify a port manually. In this example, we set server’s port to 9999:

jupyter notebook --port 9999

Command to start notebook server without opening a web browser:

jupyter notebook --no-browser

The notebook server provides help messages for other command line arguments using --help flag:

jupyter notebook --help

Jupyter Notebook Shortcuts

To change modes (edit, command):

Esc - Change mode to command mode
Enter - Change mode to edit mode

To change content type (code or markdown) [in command mode]:

m - Change to markdown
y - Change to code

To execute code or markdown [any mode]:

Shift + Enter - Execute and go to next cell
Ctrl + Enter - Execute and be in the same cell

To insert cell [in command mode]:

a - Create cell in above to the cell
b - Create cell in below to the cell

To cut copy paste [in command mode]:

x - Cut the cell that can be paste anywhere any number of times
c - Copy the cell that can be paste anywhere and any number of times
v - Paste the cell

Related Article: How to upload a dataset in Jupyter Notebook?