Setting Up VS Code for Python Development

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a powerful and lightweight code editor that is perfect for Python development. Follow this guide to set up your environment.

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Prerequisites

• Install Python (ensure it's added to your PATH).
• Install Visual Studio Code.

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Step 1: Install the Python Extension

1. Open VS Code.
2. Go to the Extensions view by clicking on the Extensions icon in the Activity Bar or pressing Ctrl+Shift+X.
3. Search for "Python" and install the extension by Microsoft.

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Step 2: Configure Python Interpreter

1. Open a Python file or create a new one with a .py extension.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+P to open the Command Palette.
3. Type Python: Select Interpreter and select the appropriate Python interpreter from the list.

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Step 3: Install Useful Extensions (Optional)

• Pylance: For better IntelliSense and type checking.
• Python Docstring Generator: To generate docstrings for your functions.
• Code Runner: To quickly run Python scripts.

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Step 4: Set Up a Virtual Environment (Recommended)

1. Open the terminal in VS Code (`Ctrl+``).
2. Run the following commands:

   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

3. Select the virtual environment as your Python interpreter.

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Step 5: Debugging Configuration

1. Open the Debug view by clicking on the Debug icon in the Activity Bar or pressing Ctrl+Shift+D.
2. Click on "create a launch.json file" and select "Python".
3. Customize the configuration as needed.

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Step 6: Install Python Packages

Use the terminal to install packages:

pip install <package_name>

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Step 7: Customize Settings (Optional)

1. Open the settings (Ctrl+,).
2. Search for Python-specific settings like python.linting.enabled or python.formatting.provider and configure them.

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Step 8: Start Coding!

You are now ready to start developing Python projects in VS Code. In this tutorial, we will be following along Coursera's Google IT Automation With Python.

Google IT Automation With Python

We will be making our code open-source, and all of it will be available on Github.

If you would like to support this software-engineer, buy me a coffee! <3 :)

buy_me_a_coffee = "0xb26DDe29cF72F37A64aF8B292209B6FEe686A3B6"
print(buy_me_a_coffee)
# Output: Buy me a coffee: 0xb26DDe29cF72F37A64aF8B292209B6FEe686A3B6

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Resources

• VS Code Python Documentation
• Python Official Documentation
• Github Official Documentation
• Git Official Documentation

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