Installing packages in Python

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!