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Jupyter Tips & Tricks

Jupyter Tips & Tricks#

Code vs Markdown Cells#

Jupyter notebooks are made up of cells, which can either contain code or Markdown text.

Markdown is a simple “language” that allows you to include formatting instructions directly in the text — bold, italics, headers, links, images, code, and more. Markdown is used all over the internet, such as on Reddit and on GitHub.

Markdown Syntax

Markdown Results

 
To make text *italics*

To make text italics

 
To make text **bold***

To make text bold

 
To make text a [link](https://melaniewalsh.org/)

To make text a link

 
 To make text `code`

To make text code

Edit Mode vs Command Mode#

There are two modes in a Jupyter notebook: Edit mode and Command mode. You can use different keyboard shortcuts when in Edit vs Command mode.

from IPython.display import IFrame
IFrame("../videos/Edit-vs-Command-Mode.mp4", width='500', height='400')

If you click inside a cell, you switch to Edit mode. The cell will be outlined by a blue line.

If you click outside a cell in the sidebar or press Esc, then you switch to Command mode. The cell will no longer be outlined by a blue line.

Jupyter Keyboard Shortcut Cheatsheet#

Mac

Jupyter Function

Windows

Shift + Return

Run cell (Both modes)

Shift + Enter

Option + Return

Create new cell below (Both modes)

Alt + Enter

B

Create new cell below (Command mode)

B

A

Create new cell above (Command mode)

A

D + D (twice in a row)

Delete cell (Command mode)

D + D (twice in a row)

Command + Z

Undo action inside cell (Edit mode)

Control + Z

Z

Undo action outside cell (e.g., undo deletion of a cell) (Command mode)

Z

Shift + M

Merge cells (Command mode)

Shift + M

Control + Shift + -

Split cell into two cells (Edit mode)

Control + Shift + -

Tab

Autocomplete file/variable/function name (Edit mode)

Tab

Shift + L

Toggle line numbers for code (Command mode)

Shift + L

M

Switch cell to Markdown (Command mode)

M

Y

Switch cell to Code (Command mode)

Y

X

Cut cell (Command mode)

X

C

Copy cell (Command mode)

C

V

Paste cell (Command mode)

V

Control + /

Comment out lines (Edit mode)

Command + /

Tab Autocomplete#

You can hit Tab to autocomplete a filepath or a function name. Typing out the correct file path isn’t always easy, so tab autocomlete helps a lot!

from IPython.display import IFrame
IFrame("../videos/Tab-Autocomplete.mp4", width='800', height='400px')

Enable / Disable Scrolling for Outputs#

  • Right-click to enable / disable scrolling for outputs for any given cell

If you produce a very long output, you can enable scrolling for that particular output, i.e., display a small preview of the output that allows you to scroll through the rest of the results. This feature can help keep your Jupyter notebooks from getting ridiculously long and unwieldy.

Show File in Browser#

  • Right-click the file at the top and select “Show File in Browser”

If you lose track of where your Jupyter notebook is located on your computer (it happens!), right-click and select “Show File in Browser” to see where it is located in the file browser on the left-hand side of the page.

Interrupt / Restart Kernel#

  • Go to Kernel –> Interrupt Kernel

  • Go to Kernel –> Restart Kernel

If you run a cell, and it’s taking ages to complete or seems to be stuck, you can interrupt the kernel to try to stop that particular process, and, if that doesn’t work, you can restart the entire kernel.

Warning

Restarting the kernel will cause saved variables to be lost.

More Resources#

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