Installing Jupyter Notebook and JupyterLab

Jupyter is an extremely useful tool for data analysis and exploration. It allows you to insert code fragments to test functionality or quickly experiment with a dataset, immediately displaying the results of each command.

Jupyter is a generic term for a notebook interface. Jupyter Notebook is the classic application, with a simple interface. The updated version, JupyterLab, offers more features and customization options.

To apply the content of analiticas lessons, you can freely choose between Jupyter Notebook and JupyterLab.

In this small guide we'll discover how to:

Install Jupyter Notebook with PIP

The PIP (or PIP3) command allows you to quickly install Jupyter Notebook. For instructions on installing PIP, check this page out.

  • Open the terminal and run the following command: 

pip install notebook

  • If you're using an operating system that uses Python 2, you'll need to specify that you want to use PIP3. 

pip3 install notebook

  • Once the installation is complete, you can launch Jupyter Notebook by executing this command: 

jupyter notebook

Jupyter Notebook will open in your default browser (but its execution will happen locally).

Install JupyterLab with PIP

  • To install JupyterLab, run this command in the terminal: 

pip install jupyterlab

  • If you're using an operating system that uses Python 2, you'll need to specify that you want to use PIP3. 

pip3 install jupyterlab

  • You can launch JupyterLab by running this command in your terminal: 

jupyter lab

JupyterLab will open in your default browser, although its execution will be happening locally, on your machine.

Install Anaconda and Miniconda

Anaconda and Miniconda are open-source platforms designed to simplify package management.

The main differences between Anaconda and Miniconda are the following:

  • Anaconda offers a complete distribution with over 1,500 pre-installed packages for data analysis, machine learning, and visualisation. It's the perfect solution if you don't want to download the packages you need. However, this comes at a price: installation can be lengthy and the platform might be slow and heavy.

  • Miniconda is a lightweight version of Anaconda. It includes only Conda, the package and environment manager, and Python, allowing you to install only the packages necessary for your project. This minimalist solution saves space and reduces installation time.

A great advantage offered by Anaconda and Miniconda are the isolated work environments (the so-called "virtual environments"). They allow you to create different environments for your projects and ensure there are no conflicts between different versions of the packages you may need.

Here’s a few handy link to the official documentation to install Anaconda or Miniconda, depending on your preferences and operating system.

Subsequently, you can install and run Jupyter Notebook and JupyterLab directly from the Anaconda or Miniconda interface.

Now that you have installed your notebook interface, you can start doing some data analysis.

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