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Code Cells

Code, Output, Streams

An empty code cell:

[ ]:

Two empty lines:

[ ]:


Leading/trailing empty lines:

[1]:


# 2 empty lines before, 1 after

A simple output:

[2]:
6 * 7
[2]:
42

The standard output stream:

[3]:
print('Hello, world!')
Hello, world!

Normal output + standard output

[4]:
print('Hello, world!')
6 * 7
Hello, world!
[4]:
42

The standard error stream is highlighted and displayed just below the code cell. The standard output stream comes afterwards (with no special highlighting). Finally, the “normal” output is displayed.

[5]:
import sys

print("I'll appear on the standard error stream", file=sys.stderr)
print("I'll appear on the standard output stream")
"I'm the 'normal' output"
I'll appear on the standard output stream
I'll appear on the standard error stream
[5]:
"I'm the 'normal' output"

Note:

Using the IPython kernel, the order is actually mixed up, see https://github.com/ipython/ipykernel/issues/280.

Cell Magics

IPython can handle code in other languages by means of cell magics:

[6]:
%%bash
for i in 1 2 3
do
    echo $i
done
1
2
3

Special Display Formats

See IPython example notebook.

Local Image Files

See also SVG support for LaTeX.

[7]:
from IPython.display import Image
i = Image(filename='images/notebook_icon.png')
i
[7]:
_images/code-cells_20_0.png
[8]:
display(i)
_images/code-cells_21_0.png

Image URLs

There may be errors in this part because images’ URLs are not accessible during a build of RPM. See online documentation.

[9]:
Image(url='https://www.python.org/static/img/python-logo-large.png')
[9]:
[10]:
Image(url='https://www.python.org/static/img/python-logo-large.png', embed=True)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TypeError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/IPython/core/display.py in _data_and_metadata(self, always_both)
   1264         try:
-> 1265             b64_data = b2a_base64(self.data).decode('ascii')
   1266         except TypeError:

TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'NoneType'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

FileNotFoundError                         Traceback (most recent call last)
/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/IPython/core/formatters.py in __call__(self, obj, include, exclude)
    968
    969             if method is not None:
--> 970                 return method(include=include, exclude=exclude)
    971             return None
    972         else:

/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/IPython/core/display.py in _repr_mimebundle_(self, include, exclude)
   1253         if self.embed:
   1254             mimetype = self._mimetype
-> 1255             data, metadata = self._data_and_metadata(always_both=True)
   1256             if metadata:
   1257                 metadata = {mimetype: metadata}

/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/IPython/core/display.py in _data_and_metadata(self, always_both)
   1265             b64_data = b2a_base64(self.data).decode('ascii')
   1266         except TypeError:
-> 1267             raise FileNotFoundError(
   1268                 "No such file or directory: '%s'" % (self.data))
   1269         md = {}

FileNotFoundError: No such file or directory: 'None'
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TypeError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/IPython/core/display.py in _data_and_metadata(self, always_both)
   1264         try:
-> 1265             b64_data = b2a_base64(self.data).decode('ascii')
   1266         except TypeError:

TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'NoneType'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

FileNotFoundError                         Traceback (most recent call last)
/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/IPython/core/formatters.py in __call__(self, obj)
    343             method = get_real_method(obj, self.print_method)
    344             if method is not None:
--> 345                 return method()
    346             return None
    347         else:

/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/IPython/core/display.py in _repr_png_(self)
   1283     def _repr_png_(self):
   1284         if self.embed and self.format == self._FMT_PNG:
-> 1285             return self._data_and_metadata()
   1286
   1287     def _repr_jpeg_(self):

/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/IPython/core/display.py in _data_and_metadata(self, always_both)
   1265             b64_data = b2a_base64(self.data).decode('ascii')
   1266         except TypeError:
-> 1267             raise FileNotFoundError(
   1268                 "No such file or directory: '%s'" % (self.data))
   1269         md = {}

FileNotFoundError: No such file or directory: 'None'
[10]:
<IPython.core.display.Image object>
[11]:
Image(url='http://jupyter.org/assets/nav_logo.svg')
[11]:

Math

[12]:
from IPython.display import Math
eq = Math(r'\int\limits_{-\infty}^\infty f(x) \delta(x - x_0) dx = f(x_0)')
eq
[12]:
$\displaystyle \int\limits_{-\infty}^\infty f(x) \delta(x - x_0) dx = f(x_0)$
[13]:
display(eq)
$\displaystyle \int\limits_{-\infty}^\infty f(x) \delta(x - x_0) dx = f(x_0)$
[14]:
from IPython.display import Latex
Latex(r'This is a \LaTeX{} equation: $a^2 + b^2 = c^2$')
[14]:
This is a \LaTeX{} equation: $a^2 + b^2 = c^2$
[15]:
%%latex
\begin{equation}
\int\limits_{-\infty}^\infty f(x) \delta(x - x_0) dx = f(x_0)
\end{equation}
\begin{equation} \int\limits_{-\infty}^\infty f(x) \delta(x - x_0) dx = f(x_0) \end{equation}

Plots

The output formats for Matplotlib plots can be customized. You’ll need separate settings for the Jupyter Notebook application and for nbsphinx.

If you want to use SVG images for Matplotlib plots, add this line to your IPython configuration file:

c.InlineBackend.figure_formats = {'svg'}

If you want SVG images, but also want nice plots when exporting to LaTeX/PDF, you can select:

c.InlineBackend.figure_formats = {'svg', 'pdf'}

If you want to use the default PNG plots or HiDPI plots using 'png2x' (a.k.a. 'retina'), make sure to set this:

c.InlineBackend.rc = {'figure.dpi': 96}

This is needed because the default 'figure.dpi' value of 72 is only valid for the Qt Console.

If you are planning to store your SVG plots as part of your notebooks, you should also have a look at the 'svg.hashsalt' setting.

For more details on these and other settings, have a look at Default Values for Matplotlib’s “inline” Backend.

The configuration file ipython_kernel_config.py can be either in the directory where your notebook is located (see the ipython_kernel_config.py in this directory), or in your profile directory (typically ~/.ipython/profile_default/ipython_kernel_config.py). To find out your IPython profile directory, use this command:

python3 -m IPython profile locate

A local ipython_kernel_config.py in the notebook directory also works on https://mybinder.org/. Alternatively, you can create a file with those settings in a file named .ipython/profile_default/ipython_kernel_config.py in your repository.

To get SVG and PDF plots for nbsphinx, use something like this in your conf.py file:

nbsphinx_execute_arguments = [
    "--InlineBackend.figure_formats={'svg', 'pdf'}",
    "--InlineBackend.rc={'figure.dpi': 96}",
]

In the following example, nbsphinx should use an SVG image in the HTML output and a PDF image for LaTeX/PDF output.

[16]:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ModuleNotFoundError                       Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-16-a0d2faabd9e9> in <module>
----> 1 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'matplotlib'
[17]:
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=[6, 3])
ax.plot([4, 9, 7, 20, 6, 33, 13, 23, 16, 62, 8]);
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NameError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-17-74f5824e7634> in <module>
----> 1 fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=[6, 3])
      2 ax.plot([4, 9, 7, 20, 6, 33, 13, 23, 16, 62, 8]);

NameError: name 'plt' is not defined

Alternatively, the figure format(s) can also be chosen directly in the notebook (which overrides the setting in nbsphinx_execute_arguments and in the IPython configuration):

[18]:
%config InlineBackend.figure_formats = ['png']
[19]:
fig
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NameError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-19-20df7bd33167> in <module>
----> 1 fig

NameError: name 'fig' is not defined

If you want to use PNG images, but with HiDPI resolution, use the special 'png2x' (a.k.a. 'retina') format (which also looks nice in the LaTeX output):

[20]:
%config InlineBackend.figure_formats = ['png2x']
[21]:
fig
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NameError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-21-20df7bd33167> in <module>
----> 1 fig

NameError: name 'fig' is not defined

Pandas Dataframes

Pandas dataframes should be displayed as nicely formatted HTML tables (if you are using HTML output).

[22]:
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ModuleNotFoundError                       Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-22-59ab05e21164> in <module>
----> 1 import numpy as np
      2 import pandas as pd

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'numpy'
[23]:
df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randint(0, 100, size=[5, 4]),
                  columns=['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'])
df
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NameError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-23-b1002ff577da> in <module>
----> 1 df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randint(0, 100, size=[5, 4]),
      2                   columns=['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'])
      3 df

NameError: name 'pd' is not defined

For LaTeX output, however, the plain text output is used by default.

To get nice LaTeX tables, a few settings have to be changed:

[24]:
pd.set_option('display.latex.repr', True)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NameError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-24-2c7fa64bd713> in <module>
----> 1 pd.set_option('display.latex.repr', True)

NameError: name 'pd' is not defined

This is not enabled by default because of Pandas issue #12182.

The generated LaTeX tables utilize the booktabs package, so you have to make sure that package is loaded in the preamble with:

\usepackage{booktabs}

In order to allow page breaks within tables, you should use:

[25]:
pd.set_option('display.latex.longtable', True)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NameError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-25-c31509624962> in <module>
----> 1 pd.set_option('display.latex.longtable', True)

NameError: name 'pd' is not defined

The longtable package is already used by Sphinx, so you don’t have to manually load it in the preamble.

Finally, if you want to use LaTeX math expressions in your dataframe, you’ll have to disable escaping:

[26]:
pd.set_option('display.latex.escape', False)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NameError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-26-41c2b6041614> in <module>
----> 1 pd.set_option('display.latex.escape', False)

NameError: name 'pd' is not defined

The above settings should have no influence on the HTML output, but the LaTeX output should now look nicer:

[27]:
df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randint(0, 100, size=[10, 4]),
                  columns=[r'$\alpha$', r'$\beta$', r'$\gamma$', r'$\delta$'])
df
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NameError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-27-590dc4ed37a9> in <module>
----> 1 df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randint(0, 100, size=[10, 4]),
      2                   columns=[r'$\alpha$', r'$\beta$', r'$\gamma$', r'$\delta$'])
      3 df

NameError: name 'pd' is not defined

YouTube Videos

[28]:
from IPython.display import YouTubeVideo
YouTubeVideo('WAikxUGbomY')
[28]:

Arbitrary JavaScript Output (HTML only)

[29]:
%%javascript

var text = document.createTextNode("Hello, I was generated with JavaScript!");
// Content appended to "element" will be visible in the output area:
element.appendChild(text);

Note:

jQuery should be available, but using the readthedocs.org default theme, it’s not. See the issue on Github. Other Sphinx themes are not affected by this.

Unsupported Output Types

If a code cell produces data with an unsupported MIME type, the Jupyter Notebook doesn’t generate any output. nbsphinx, however, shows a warning message.

[30]:
display({
    'text/x-python': 'print("Hello, world!")',
    'text/x-haskell': 'main = putStrLn "Hello, world!"',
}, raw=True)

Data type cannot be displayed: text/x-python, text/x-haskell

ANSI Colors

The standard output and standard error streams may contain ANSI escape sequences to change the text and background colors.

[31]:
print('BEWARE: \x1b[1;33;41mugly colors\x1b[m!', file=sys.stderr)
print('AB\x1b[43mCD\x1b[35mEF\x1b[1mGH\x1b[4mIJ\x1b[7m'
      'KL\x1b[49mMN\x1b[39mOP\x1b[22mQR\x1b[24mST\x1b[27mUV')
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV
BEWARE: ugly colors!

The following code showing the 8 basic ANSI colors is based on http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prompt-HOWTO/x329.html. Each of the 8 colors has an “intense” variation, which is used for bold text.

[32]:
text = ' XYZ '
formatstring = '\x1b[{}m' + text + '\x1b[m'

print(' ' * 6 + ' ' * len(text) +
      ''.join('{:^{}}'.format(bg, len(text)) for bg in range(40, 48)))
for fg in range(30, 38):
    for bold in False, True:
        fg_code = ('1;' if bold else '') + str(fg)
        print(' {:>4} '.format(fg_code) + formatstring.format(fg_code) +
              ''.join(formatstring.format(fg_code + ';' + str(bg))
                      for bg in range(40, 48)))
            40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47
   30  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
 1;30  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
   31  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
 1;31  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
   32  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
 1;32  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
   33  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
 1;33  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
   34  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
 1;34  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
   35  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
 1;35  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
   36  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
 1;36  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
   37  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 
 1;37  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ  XYZ 

ANSI also supports a set of 256 indexed colors. The following code showing all of them is based on http://bitmote.com/index.php?post/2012/11/19/Using-ANSI-Color-Codes-to-Colorize-Your-Bash-Prompt-on-Linux.

[33]:
formatstring = '\x1b[38;5;{0};48;5;{0}mX\x1b[1mX\x1b[m'

print('  + ' + ''.join('{:2}'.format(i) for i in range(36)))
print('  0 ' + ''.join(formatstring.format(i) for i in range(16)))
for i in range(7):
    i = i * 36 + 16
    print('{:3} '.format(i) + ''.join(formatstring.format(i + j)
                                      for j in range(36) if i + j < 256))
  +  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435
  0 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 16 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 52 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 88 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
124 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
160 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
196 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
232 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

You can even use 24-bit RGB colors:

[34]:
start = 255, 0, 0
end = 0, 0, 255
length = 79
out = []

for i in range(length):
    rgb = [start[c] + int(i * (end[c] - start[c]) / length) for c in range(3)]
    out.append('\x1b['
               '38;2;{rgb[2]};{rgb[1]};{rgb[0]};'
               '48;2;{rgb[0]};{rgb[1]};{rgb[2]}mX\x1b[m'.format(rgb=rgb))
print(''.join(out))
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX