Visual Studio: The Highly Popular IDE for Developers

Developers use Visual Studio, one of the most popular integrated development environments (IDEs), to enjoy a rich set of features and tools that ease coding, testing, and debugging. Are you a Python developer? There is a high chance that you have utilized the capabilities offered by Visual Studio. Today, let’s understand how to change the Python environment in the IDE.

The Concept of a Python Environment

By definition, a Python environment constitutes a collection of resources including tools and modules that ease the development, testing, and launching of Python applications. It comprises the Python interpreter, which enables the execution of code, along with the standard library and any third-party packages that have been installed in the system. Once you create a new Python project, the default version of Python interpreter and standard library present in Visual Studio gets automatically set up – forming your Python environment.

Why Should You Change the Python Environment?

As a developer, you might want to modify your Python environment within Visual Studio for a few reasons.

• Changing to a different Python version
• Installing additional third-party packages
• Migrating to a virtual environment

Changing the Python environment in Visual Studio is an easy process – and can be completed within just a few steps. Let’s take a look at the process below.

Switching to a New Python Environment

Step 1: Launch Your Project in Visual Studio

The initial step is to open a project within Visual Studio. If you haven’t got one yet, create a new Python project using “File > New > Project” from the main menu and then selecting “Python” from the list of project templates.

Step 2: Open the Python Environment Window

Upon opening the project in Visual Studio, click on the “Python Environments” button in the toolbar, resulting in the launch of the Python Environment window; showing a collection of installed Python environments on your PC.

Step 3: Choose the Environment You Want to Use

From the window, select the environment you want to use by clicking on it. You will see information related to the selected environment such as the Python interpreter version, and the list of installed packages.

Step 4: Setting the Environment as Default

If you want your newly selected Python environment to be set as default for your project, click on “Set as Default” at the bottom of the Python Environment window. Once this is done, Visual Studio uses this version for all future builds and debugging sessions within the project.

Step 5: Configuring the Environment

If you need to configure the environment further, install additional third-party packages, or edit the Python path, click on “Configure” in the Python Environment window. This action will open the configuration panel where you can modify your environment settings as per your requirements.

Conclusion

Altering your Python environment in Visual Studio is an easy and quick process to optimize your work efficiency with Python applications. By selecting the right Python environment, you can ensure the smooth execution of code along with compatibility with required third-party packages. Furthermore, Visual Studio provides a range of tools and features, making it simple to switch between environments and customizing them to meet your specific needs.