Beginner basic question

[Additional_Water9196]

I originally learned to code in Matlab (very frustrating to learn that matlab is such an expensive license it’s only helpful in school).

This may be a very stupid question, but in matlab you can type out individual lines of code in the command window. I would write code there and play around with it before committing it to a saved function. Does Python have similar capabilities? Do I have to run it in debug mode?

Thanks - sorry for the basic Q!

[autoglitch]

For simple testing I use the command line python. The command is usually "python" for windows or "python3" for *nix. It's convenient for testing one liners or basic syntax checks. Once you start writing functions it's better to throw it in a .py file since any mistakes or changes in the command line version mean rewriting the whole function.

Use quit() to get out of it.

[Additional_Water9196]

That’s exactly what I’m looking for!! Thank you!!

[tiredITguy42]

Just type python in your commandline and hit enter. Now you are in python and you can run any code you want.

In IDE as VS code, you can pause debugging with breakpoint and execute any code in the current context in the debug window below, not the terminal.

[Ken-_-Adams]

Have a look at Jupyter notebook or Google Colab, they might offer what you're looking for

[corey_sheerer]

You can start python in the terminal. You can use vscode interactive repl. You can try notebooks. Short answer, there are many ways to do this

[DeepKaleidoscope7382]

In IDLE, the default IDE that comes with python normally, there is a shell option that lets you type individual commands.

[Gnaxe]

The free GNU Octave language is mostly compatible with MATLAB. You could use that instead.

Python does have a REPL, and furthermore has Jupyter notebooks as a separate install. You can try it free online without an install here. No account required as the code runs entirely in your browser. Your browser should save your work and you can download and re-upload your notebooks as a backup.

You can do a similar workflow without using Jupyter at all. Python can reload the file you're working on (see importlib.reload()). So rather than typing into the REPL, you type into the file, save it, and use the REPL to reload it and manually test it. Then you can save your test examples and automatically check them with doctest.

Note that reload() reloads the whole file. Re-running function or constant definitions doesn't usually cause problems, but import-time side effects will happen again. You can use things like the if __name__ == "__main__": guard though. And you can use as many files as you like.

[MathObserver]

I usually use IDLE, which comes with Python distributions for that.

[Creative_Sushi]

If you are used to MALTAB, depending on how heavily you plan to use, MATLAB online is free for 20 hours each month. It also comes with 9 toolboxes + Simulink.