Visual Studio Code is one of the best code editors you can use for almost any programming language and any professional project. Most people new to the Python programming language encounter issues while setting up the Visual Studio Code. So, if you want to learn how to set up VS Code for Python, this article is for you. In this article, I will walk you through how to set up VS Code for Python step by step.
How to Set up VS Code for Python?
Setting up the Visual Studio Code Editor is not a difficult task. If you have followed all the steps that I will explain in the section below, you can easily set up VS Code on your computer for the Python programming language.
Step 1: Download and Install Python
So the first step is to download the Python interpreter on your system, which can be easily downloaded from here. It’s always best to download the latest version of the Python interpreter, but if your goal is to use Python for data science and machine learning, I will suggest downloading any version of Python between 3.6 and 3.8. Currently, I am using Python 3.7.5 which I think is the best version of Python for working with any machine learning framework.
So after downloading the Python interpreter and installing it, open up IDLE which is the preinstalled notepad for coding that you get with Python. Write some Python code there to see if you’ve installed everything correctly.
Step 2: Download and Install Visual Studio Code
Now the next step is to download the Visual Studio Code Editor for your system, which can be easily downloaded from here. After downloading it, open it and create or open a folder where you want to save all your Python files. Then go to the extensions section of your VS code and install a few extensions as mentioned below:
Step 3: Set up VS Code for Python
To set up VS Code for the Python programming language, make sure you know where you have installed the Python interpreter in your system. If you don’t know where it is installed, find Python.exe in your system and copy its path. Then create a Python file in your VS code and write some basic code. Before running it, press ctrl + shift + p and it will open a command palette to help you select the Python environment you want to configure for the directory where your Python file is located. Then select the Python environment or paste the path you copied earlier select it as your Python environment and run your code.
Summary
This is how you can easily configure Visual Studio Code for Python in your system. If you want to learn about setting up the Visual Studio code editor for C++, you can learn about it from here. Hope you liked this article on how to set up the VS Code Editor for the Python programming language. Please feel free to ask your valuable questions in the comments section below.
