Start by making sure you have Python installed. Visit the Python website for download and installation instructions.

Following the installation, make sure Python was installed correctly. Open a terminal on your computer (terminal on macOS, Powershell on Windows). Enter the following command:

python3 --version # Example output: Python 3.12.6

Python includes a package manager called pip to install libraries and packages. Make sure it was installed correctly.

pip3 --version # Example output: pip 24.2 from ...

Notice: On Windows computers, or in virtual Python environments, the commands python and pip can be used without the 3 suffix.

Let’s install some packages.

# Install a single package
pip3 install numpy

# Install multiple at once
pip3 install pandas matplotlib

Using packages in your Python program is pretty straight forward. Here are a couple examples.

# example.py
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

df = pd.Dataframe()

# Rest of code

Happy programming!