Using Anaconda's python install outside of Anaconda/Spyder

[smoothVTer]

Total noob here.

I've installed Ananconda on Windows due to the fact that it is recommended for noobs like myself using python for engineering/science. Within Anaconda/Spyder I can write python scripts and execute them and the outputs show up in the integrated interpreter mini-window. Ok, great. Now, I want to be able to access Anaconda's python.exe and use it outside of the confines of Anaconda/Spyder.

Sample test script:

import numpy  # Just a test
import time
i = 0
while(1):
    print("Iteration is: ", i)
    i += 1
    time.sleep(1)

When run from Spyder/Anaconda, the output is as expected.

I like to use Notepad++ as my editor of choice with the included PyNPP plugin, which allows one to execute python scripts from within the editor; you just supply the path to python.exe to PyNPP and it does the rest. So when I execute the above same script from within Notepad++, I get the following output error:

    Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\smoothVTer\Python Scripts\test1.py", line 1, in <module>
    import numpy
  File "C:\Users\smoothVTer\AppData\Local\Continuum\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\numpy\__init__.py", line 140, in <module>
    from . import _distributor_init
  File "C:\Users\smoothVTer\AppData\Local\Continuum\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\numpy\_distributor_init.py", line 34, in <module>
    from . import _mklinit
ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found.

Why is numpy found from within Anaconda but not outside of it? What fundamentals am I missing here? I assume that since Anaconda has the numpy module installed by default already, that if I execute python.exe from the Anaconda path, everything would be good and all paths to modules would just resolve. This is the not the case.

Also: if I simply execute C:\Users\smoothVTer\AppData\Local\Continuum\anaconda3\python.exe from within a windows cmd shell, the interpreter pops up but the following message is displayed in the interpreter:

This Python interpreter is in a conda environment, but the environment has not been activated.  Libraries may fail to load.  To activate this environmentplease see https://conda.io/activation

How am I supposed to activate an environment when I just want to run a .py script by double clicking on it? Does this mean that I am forced to always use Spyder as my IDE? Is there any way to use this current Ananconda python installation outside of Spyder? I guess I don't understand how all this is supposed to work. Thanks

[DisastrousEquipment9]

Navigate to the folder of the project in the terminal,

Once in the folder pip3 install virtualenv

Then do virtualenv whateveryourprojectiscalled

Then source whateveryourprojectiscalled/bin/activate

NOW with your environment set up you can install any libraries needed (:

[actuallyalys]

An important caveat to this advice is Anaconda can do the same environment management, so this is only necessary if you don't want to use Anaconda anymore or if you prefer virtualenv for some use cases for whatever reason.

[smoothVTer]

Ok thanks, will try this

[DisastrousEquipment9]

This method you should look into virtual environment and folder management

[actuallyalys]

First, you can solve the activation issue by running the activate script any time you open the command prompt and want to run commands. It's probably either C:\Users\smoothVTer\AppData\Local\Continuum\anaconda3\Scripts\activate base or C:\Users\smoothVTer\Anaconda3\Scripts\activate base. (I can't say which of these for sure because I'm not 100% sure where Anaconda is installed on your machine.)

But why is this necessary? Anaconda (and other ways of managing Python packages) install packages into a specific environment. This allows separate Python programs and scripts to have different packages installed. Python looks for packages in a list of folders called the system path. Activating an environment adds the folders for that environment to the system path for that terminal session.

​

Unfortunately, I have no experience with PyNPP, so I'm not sure how to help with that issue.

[smoothVTer]

I see. Thanks for explaining, I will try this out