Today we are going to cover what I consider a flaw in the iPython Notebook environment. Code you write cannot be imported into another program like you can using just a standard Python compiler. At least it cannot under its native .ipynb format.
There is a work around though. Starting jupyter notebooks up with the –script command results in your notebook being saved as both a ipynb file and a .py file. And .py is what we are looking for.
note ‘–script‘ is being deprecated in favor of nbconvert. But as of this moment it still works and will work on older versions you have downloaded as well.
Create a Module
I am going to create a little module call add2. This module contains 3 simple functions: sqr2, sub2, and add2
You can see that now along with my add2.ipynb file, I have a add2.py file.
In my instance, my iPython notebooks are stored under my user directory. If you are not sure where you notebooks are, you can use the pwd command (print working directory)
** note the double \\ are due to a formatting function in Python. \ is a break command that can be used for many purposes. Example \t means to insert a tab.
So effectively you have to use \\ if you want a \ in Python, making my working directory C:\Users\Benjamin
Import the Module
Now if I open up a new notebook and try using the functions I have just created, I will error out.
So, what I need to do is import add2, then I can start calling on the functions I created in add2
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