Jupyter Notebook is a web-based interactive computing environment that you may use for data analysis and collaborative coding. It allows the integration of code, text, and visualizations into a single document. It has an extensive ecosystem of libraries available for accomplishing different tasks.
It dominates the data science world when it comes to data analysis, data preprocessing, and feature engineering. Here are some essential tips and tricks to help you make the most out of your notebook experience.
1. Difference Between Command Mode and Edit Mode
Understanding the difference between the command and edit modes is one of the fundamental aspects of working with a Jupyter Notebook. This is because each mode provides different functionalities and shortcuts.
The edit mode is indicated by a green border and is the default mode when you select a cell for editing.
In this mode, you can type and edit code within the cell. To enter edit mode, double-click on a cell or press enter when you select one.
The command mode is indicated by a blue cell border. It is also the default mode when you are not actively editing a cell.
In this mode, you can perform notebook-level operations such as creating, deleting, changing, or executing cells. To switch from edit mode to command mode press theESckey.
2. Accessing and Using the Keyboard Shortcuts
Jupyter Notebooks has aKeyboard shortcutsdialog that helps you view all available shortcuts. To access it ensure you are in command mode. Then press theHkey. A pop-up window such as the one below should appear.
Each shortcut has an explanation of what it does next to it. The commands are divided into those that you can use in command mode and edit mode. ensure you are in the right mode when executing the respective shortcut. Using these shortcuts will help you save a lot of time as you won’t have to follow a series of steps to accomplish each operation.
3. Using Magic Commands
Magic commands provide additional functionalities that you can use for executing tasks. To use them, prefix the command with a%for line magics and two%%for cell-level magic. Instead of memorizing a few, you can access all the available magic commands by using the%lsmagiccommand.
On a new cell, run the%lsmagiccommand. This will display all the available magic commands both in the edit and command mode. To understand what each command does, run the command with a postfix question mark to get its documentation. For example, to understand what the%aliasmagic command does, run%alias?.
Make sure you understand the mode a command runs on before using it.
4. Customizing the Notebook
Jupyter Notebook allows for user customization if you do not like the default look. You can customize it in one of two ways. You can either customize it manually or use extensions. The easier alternative is to use extensions.
To use extensions, run the following command on a new cell. This command will install jupyter-themes, an extension that comes with predefined themes.
Then proceed to your terminal orCMD to apply configurations. Start by listing the available themes using the code below.
Then use the following command to apply a theme. Replace the theme name with your desired one.
After applying the theme, restart the Jupyter Notebook for the changes to take place. The output of applying theoceans16theme is as follows:
If you would like to restore the notebook back to default, use the following command.
The command reverts the Jupyter Notebook to its initial default theme.
To manually customize your notebook, follow the following steps.
Go to the directory where you installed Jupyter Notebook. Find the directory with the name.jupyter. Create a new folder inside it and name itcustom. Then create a CSS file in thecustomdirectory and name itcustom.css. Finally, open the CSS file with an editor andadd your CSS customization code.
After adding the code, restart your Jupyter Notebook for the changes to take effect.
5. Collaboration and Sharing
When you are coding you may want to collaborate with other developers. To achieve this in Jupyter Notebook, you canuse version control such as Git. To use Git, initialize a Git repository on your project’s root directory. Then add and commit each change you make to the Jupyter Notebook to the Git repository.
Finally, share the repository with the people you want to collaborate with by pushing it to GitHub. This will allow the collaborators to clone the repository hence accessing your Jupyter Notebook files.
6. Widgets and Interactive Features
Widget and interactive features aid in helping you create dynamic user interfaces within your notebook.
They give you a way to interact and visualize with your data. Jupyter Notebooks support a few widgets by default. To use more widgets you need to install theipywidgetslibrary using the following command.
After installing, import thewidgetsmodule to use its functionalities.
You now need to create the widget of your choice. For example, to create asliderwidget use the following code:
Then display theslider.
The output is as follows:
you’re able to use the slider for user input and selection of a numeric value within a specified range. There are many widgets that the library supports. To list them use the following line of code:
Look for the widget that supports your requirements from the list.
7. Tips for Efficiency and Performance
To improve the efficiency and performance of your notebook, the following tips come in handy:
How to Improve Your Performance as a Data Scientist
In the data science world, there are many tools that can help you increase your throughput. It can be libraries that you may install in your development environment, IDEs tailored for data analysis, or even browser extensions. Strive to research more on the available tools out there as they can help you simplify your work and save you a lot of time.
