Perplexed and Bursting: Installing Python Packages in Visual Studio

Step 1: Visual Studio Installation

Before embarking on any Python package installation, a prerequisite is having Visual Studio installed on your device. Head over to the Visual Studio website and download the latest version of the community edition. Once done, launch the installer, and follow the prompts to install Visual Studio.

Step 2: Python Setup in Visual Studio

Now, to use Python packages in Visual Studio, we need to set up Python. On opening your Visual Studio, select “Python” under the “Workloads” tab in the installation options. Head on to the “Python Environments” in the Solution Explorer and select the version you want to use. If there aren’t any Python environments, hit the “Create” button.

Step 3: Python Package Installation

With Python set up and ready, it’s now time to install Python packages. Python packages are sets of modules that improve the functionality of Python. To install a package, we’ll use Python’s built-in package manager, pip.

What’s next is opening the command window by hitting the “Ctrl + \`” keys at the same time. Within the command window, navigate to your project directory using the “cd” command. You can now install packages by pip.

Suppose you’re looking to install the NumPy package. In that case, you can execute “pip install numpy” in the command window and press enter. Pip retrieves the package and installs it. To install multiple packages, separate them with spaces.

If you’re busy with a requirements file that lists all the packages that your project requires, installing them will be as easy as running “pip install -r requirements.txt.” The command then installs all packages listed in the requirements file.

Step 4: Managing Python Packages

To manage installed packages, including updating and uninstalling them, you need to know the following:

• To update a package, execute “pip install –upgrade package-name” for upgrading the package to the latest version.
• To uninstall a Python package, execute “pip uninstall package-name.”
• To view installed packages, execute “pip freeze” where you get a list of all installed packages in your Python environment.

Conclusion

The steps highlighted above have simplified the installation of Python packages in Visual Studio. Using the built-in package manager, pip, it’s easy to install, update, and manage your Python packages. Get started with Python packages in your Visual Studio projects by following the above steps.