Create a Python Environment with Anaconda

There are different ways to build Python environments. Deciding which option is the best one for you just depends on:

• How much storage space you have left in your computer.
• How familiar are you with using your command line
• General preference

So in this post, we are going to show you how you can install Anaconda Navigator:

We recommend using this installation route if:

• You prefer to have a graphical interface to interact with.
• You are not yet too familiar with the command line
• It is quite a heavy package, so you also need to be able to store it in your computer (at least 5GB)
• The conda command also has the alternative of miniconda for a light-weight install of the same package manager, but this involves a bit more useage of the command line as it does not come with the GUI (which we will cover in another post)

Anaconda Navigator is an open-source distribution of the Python and R programming languages for data science that aims to simplify package management and deployment.

Package versions in Anaconda are managed by the package management system conda which analyzes the current environment before executing an installation to avoid disrupting other frameworks and packages.

The Anaconda distribution comes with over 250 packages automatically installed. Over 7500 additional open-source packages can be installed from PyPI as well as the conda package and virtual environment manager.

It also includes a GUI (graphical user interface), Anaconda Navigator, as a graphical alternative to the command line interface. Anaconda Navigator is included in the Anaconda distribution, and allows users to launch applications and manage conda packages, environments and channels without using command-line commands.

For this reason, it is a very begginer friendly way of installing and managing Python environments.

Installing Anaconda navigator

This might be the first time you are ever learning to use package managers at all, but even if that is the case, is always good practice to check if there is anything in your computer that can already have Anaconda.

To see if anaconda is installed and working on your machine, the first thing we are going to do is open the terminal.

For Mac users

To open the terminal you can type the short cut Command + Space bar and Spotlight search should appear in your screen.

It should also be available in the top right corner of your screen, right next to where the time is displayed.

This is a shortcut to open any application on Mac. Once the spotlight search is enabled, you can type 'Terminal', to open your command line application. If you have never used your command line and you are curious what you can do with it, we recommend you take a look at our previous jumpstart session on File systems and the command line.

The first clue you are going to have is if when you open your terminal, it looks something like this. (base) will be in the front of your user name, to signal that you are inside of the Global environment. If you cant see anything that says (base) then we will try to search it mannually.

In the terminal, you will type the command conda and click Enter. In the next image, we can see that the command conda calls all of the different functions that Anaconda has built in. If you want to learn more about these commands, we recommend the following resources:

• Anaconda Navigator official documentation
• Conda cheatsheet

Another way that you can check in your command line where some software is stored is with the which or where command. Just type which anaconda or where anaconda in your terminal and clic Enter. If nothing is showing underneath the command you typed, then it means that it is not in your computer and we need to install it.

Installing from scratch:

For Windows users

Another way to create environments in Python is to use the Anaconda distribution. For this, we have two options: we can download Anaconda from the official distribution or a more light version of Anaconda called Miniconda.

If you go for the Anaconda version:

macOS

If you go to the official Anaconda page (https://www.anaconda.com/download#downloads), you will see the Download button for your OS. If you are using macOS, it is also important to know if your hardware settings are an Intel chip or an M1/M2/M3 chip.

You can check this by going to the Apple at the top left corner of your screen and clicking on About this Mac.

This should prompt a Window that will say the chip your computer has:

Go back to the Downloads page on Anaconda and choose the right setting for your computer.

Once the package is done loading, you can choose the predetermined installation and click install. If your terminal was opened, please relaunch it, you will now be able to see the pre fix in your user name as (base). Which means that you are in the base or root environment. We explain this later on.

It goes from:

To look something like this:

For Windows users:

For Windows, there is only one universal installer, so it does not matter the version of Windows that you are using. It is only important to know that it is only available for the 64-bit version. If your computer is a 32-bit, please look into the Anaconda archive (https://docs.anaconda.com/free/anaconda/install/old-os/).

Follow the installation process. Same as with the Python installation, this installer is going to ask you if you want to add this software to your path variables. If you are not sure or do not understand fully what path does, do not activate this function. We can change it later on if you need it.

Troubleshooting

• Anaconda is not on the CCI machine

• Visual Studio is not on the CCI machine