Python modules allow you to use code of others in your code. This saves you a lot of development time, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time.
There are thousands of modules available for Python, which save you time when developing. There are two ways to install Python modules: system wide and using a virtual environment.
Related Course: Complete Python Programming Course & Exercises
Introduction modules
In Python you have amny code packages or code modules that are available. By using a module you don’t have to implement existing code again and you can use code made by other people.
This makes developing much easier, as you can save time with basic tasks like scraping a webpage or reading a CSV file.
If you search for a problem, you often find modules that you haven’t seen before or that simply aren’t available on your computer. You can install these modules on your computer and then use them.
You can load modules by importing them at the beginning of your code. For instance
import csv |
Install module
You can install modules or packages with the Python package manager (pip). To install a module system wide, open a terminal and use the pip command. If you type the code below it will install the module.
sudo pip install module-name
That will install a Python module automatically. Generally you do not install modules system wide, but use a virtual environment or venv.
In order for this to work, you need to have pip installed. The installation process depends on your platform.
pip on Linux
You can get the pip package manager by following two commands. It will download an installation script with curl and then install it using Python.
curl -O https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
sudo python get-pip.py
If you use Ubuntu or Debian Linux you may also be able use the systems package manager:
sudo apt install python3-pip
sudo apt install python-pip
pip on Windows
Make sure you have Python 3.4 or newer, because it ships with pip. If pip is not available and you use Python > 3.4+, just run the command:
py -3 -m ensurepip
You can check your version with the command
python --version
pip on macOS
To install pip on Apple Mac OS X, open up a terminal.
Then download the get-pip.py installation file with curl
curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py
You can then run the installation script:
python get-pip.py
That’s it, pip is now installed.
older versions of Python
For older versions of Python, it’s recommended that you upgrade instead of work with a legacy version of Python. If you insist, download the install script and place it in your Python directory. Then run it with
python get-pip.py
To do this, you need an administrator command prompt.
Virtualenv
We can create a virtual environemnt, that is seperate from the operating system. This allows you to use the same Python modules as other developers in your team.
Create a virtual environment with the line:
virtualenv foo
Then open /foo/
cd /foo/
You now have 3 directories: bin, include and lib.
Move up a directory.
To activate the virtual environment type:
source foo/bin/activate
we can then install any module, any version we want - without affecting the operating system. This way we can have the same version of modules as other developers.
pip install <your-module>
To exit the virtual environment write:
deactivate