How to execute Python code from within Visual Studio Code

Question

Visual Studio Code was recently released and I liked the look of it and the features it offered  so I figured I would give it a go  I downloaded the application from the downloads page  fired it up  messed around a bit with some of the features     and then realized I had no idea how to actually execute any of my Python code  I really like the look and feel usability features of Visual Studio Code  but I can t seem to find out how to run my Python code  a real killer because that s what I program primarily in  Is there is a way to execute Python code in Visual Studio Code

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A simple and direct Python extension would save both time and efforts  Linting  debugging  code completion are the available features once installation is done  After this  to run the code proper Python installation path needs to be configured in order to run the code  General settings are available in User scope and Workspace can be configured for Python language     python pythonPath    c  python27 python exe   With above steps at least the basic Python programs can be executed

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There is a lot of confusion around Visual Studio Code tasks and the debugger  Let s discuss about it first so that we understand when to use tasks and when to use the debugger  Tasks The official documentation says -  Lots of tools exist to automate tasks like linting  building  packaging  testing  or deploying software systems  Examples include the TypeScript Compiler  linters like ESLint and TSLint as well as build systems like Make  Ant  Gulp  Jake  Rake  and MSBuild        Tasks in VS Code can be configured to run scripts and start processes so that many of these existing tools can be used from within VS Code without having to enter a command line or write new code   So  tasks are not for debugging  compiling or executing our programs  Debugger If we check the debugger documentation  we will find there is something called run mode  It says -  In addition to debugging a program  VS Code supports running the program  The Debug  Start Without Debugging action is triggered with Ctrl F5 and uses the currently selected launch configuration  Many of the launch configuration attributes are supported in  Run  mode  VS Code maintains a debug session while the program is running  and pressing the Stop button terminates the program   So  press F5 and Visual Studio Code  will try to debug your currently active file  Press Ctrl   F5 and Visual Studio Code will ignore your breakpoints and run the code  Configuring the debugger To configure the debugger  go through the documentation  In summary it says  you should modify the launch json file  For starters  to run the code in integrated terminal  inside Visual Studio Code   use -        quot name quot    quot Python  Current File  Integrated Terminal  quot        quot type quot    quot python quot        quot request quot    quot launch quot        quot program quot    quot   file  quot        quot console quot    quot integratedTerminal quot     To run the code in an external terminal  outside of Visual Studio Code   use -        quot name quot    quot Python  Current File  External Terminal  quot        quot type quot    quot python quot        quot request quot    quot launch quot        quot program quot    quot   file  quot        quot console quot    quot externalTerminal quot     N B  If all documentation was easy to search and understand then we probably would not need Stack  Overflow  Fortunately  the documentation I mentioned in this post is really easy to understand  Please feel free to read  ponder and enjoy

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In the latest version  1 36  of Visual Studio Code  Python   Press F5 and then hit Enter to run your code in the integrated terminal  Ctrl   A and then hit Shift   Enter to run your code in the interactive IPython shell

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In order to launch the current file with the respective venv  I added this to file launch json              quot name quot    quot Python  Current File quot            quot type quot    quot python quot            quot request quot    quot launch quot            quot program quot    quot   file  quot            quot pythonPath quot    quot   workspaceFolder  FOO DIR venv bin python3 quot          In the bin folder resides the source     venv bin activate script which is regularly sourced when running from a regular terminal

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You no longer need any additional extensions  You can simply switch the output of the debugger to the integrated terminal   Ctrl Shift D  then select Integrated Terminal Console from the dropdown at the top

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To extend vlad2135 s answer  read his first   that is how you set up Python debugging in Visual Studio Code with Don Jayamanne s great Python extension  which is a pretty full featured IDE for Python these days  and arguably one of Visual Studio Code s best language extensions  IMO   Basically  when you click the gear icon  it creates a launch json file in your  vscode directory in your workspace  You can also make this yourself  but it s probably just simpler to let Visual Studio Code do the heavy lifting  Here s an example file   You ll notice something cool after you generate it  It automatically created a bunch of configurations  most of mine are cut off  just scroll to see them all  with different settings and extra features for different libraries or environments  like Django   The one you ll probably end up using the most is Python  which is a plain  in my case C Python debugger and is easiest to work with settings wise  I ll make a short walkthrough of the JSON attributes for this one  since the others use the pretty much same configuration with only different interpreter paths and one or two different other features there   name  The name of the configuration  A useful example of why you would change it is if you have two Python configurations which use the same type of config  but different arguments  It s what shows up in the box you see on the top left  my box says  quot python quot  since I m using the default Python configuration   type  Interpreter type  You generally don t want to change this one  request  How you want to run your code  and you generally don t want to change this one either  Default value is  quot launch quot   but changing it to  quot attach quot  allows the debugger to attach to an already running Python process  Instead of changing it  add a configuration of type attach and use that  stopOnEntry  Python debuggers like to have an invisible break-point when you start the program so you can see the entry-point file and where your first line of active code is  It drives some C  Java programmers like me insane  false if you don t want it  true otherwise  pythonPath  The path to your install of Python  The default value gets the extension level default in the user workspace settings  Change it here if you want to have different Pythons for different debug processes  Change it in workspace settings if you want to change it for all debug processes set to the default configuration in a project  Change it in user setting to change where the extension finds Pythons across all projects   4 12 2017 The following was fixed in extension version 0 6 1   Ironically enough  this gets auto-generated wrong  It auto-generates to  quot   config python pythonPath  quot  which is deprecated in the newer Visual Studio Code versions  It might still work  but you should use  quot   config python pythonPath  quot  instead for your default first python on your path or Visual Studio Code settings   4 6 2017 Edit  This should be fixed in the next release  The team committed the fix a few days ago   program  The initial file that you debugger starts up when you hit run   quot   workspaceRoot  quot  is the root folder you opened up as your workspace  When you go over to the file icon  the base open folder   Another neat trick if you want to get your program running quickly  or you have multiple entry points to your program is to set this to  quot   file  quot  which will start debugging at the file you have open and in focus in the moment you hit debug  cwd  The current working directory folder of the project you re running  Usually you ll just want to leave this  quot   workspaceRoot  quot   debugOptions  Some debugger flags  The ones in the picture are default flags  you can find more flags in the python debugger pages  I m sure  args  This isn t actually a default configuration setting  but a useful one nonetheless  and probably what the OP was asking about   These are the command line arguments that you pass in to your program  The debugger passes these in as though they you had typed  python file py  args  into your terminal  passing each JSON string in the list to the program in order   You can go here for more information on the Visual Studio Code file variables you can use to configure your debuggers and paths  You can go here for the extension s own documentation on launch options  with both optional and required attributes  You can click the Add Configuration button at the bottom right if you don t see the config template already in the file  It ll give you a list to auto generate a configuration for most of the common debug processes out there  Now  as per vlad s answer  you may add any breakpoints you need as per normal visual debuggers  choose which run configuration you want in the top left dropdown menu and you can tap the green arrow to the left to the configuration name to start your program  Pro tip  Different people on your team use different IDEs and they probably don t need your configuration files  Visual Studio Code nearly always puts it s IDE files in one place  by design for this purpose  I assume   launch or otherwise so make sure to add directory  vscode  to your  gitignore if this is your first time generating a Visual Studio Code  file  this process will create the folder in your workspace if you don t have it already

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I use Python 3 7  32 bit   To run a program in Visual Studio Code  I right-click on the program and select  quot Run Current File in Python Interactive Window quot   If you do not have Jupyter  you may be asked to install it

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From Extensions  install Code Runner  After that you can use the shortcuts to run your source code in Visual Studio Code  First  To run code   use shortcut Ctrl   Alt   N or press F1 and then select type Run Code  or right click in a text editor window and then click Run Code in the editor context menu or click the Run Code button in editor title menu  triangle to the right  or click Run Code in context menu of file explorer   Second  To stop the running code   use shortcut Ctrl   Alt   M or press F1 and then select type Stop Code Run or right click the Output Channel and then click Stop Code Run in the context menu

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If you are using the latest version of Visual Studio Code  version 1 21 1   The task json format has changed  see here  So the answer by Fenton and by python starter may no longer be valid  Before starting configuration Before you start configuring Visual Studio Code for running your Python file   Make sure that you have installed Python and added its executable to your system PATH  You must set the folder where your python source file resides as your working folder  go to File - gt  Open Folder to set your working folder    Configuration steps Now you can configure the task  The following steps will help you run your python file correctly   use Ctrl Shift P and input task  you will see a list of options  select Tasks  Configure Task     You will then be prompted create task json from template  choose this option  and you will be prompted to choose from a list of options  Choose Others     Then in the opened task json file  use the following settings       quot version quot    quot 2 0 0 quot     quot tasks quot                      quot label quot    quot run this script quot             quot type quot    quot shell quot             quot command quot    quot python quot             quot args quot                   quot   file  quot                        quot problemMatcher quot                      In the above settings  you can give a meaningful label to this task  For example  run python   Go to the Tasks menu and click Run Task  You will be prompted to choose the task  Just choose the newly created run this script task  You will see the result in the TERMINAL tab     For a more complete tutorial about task configuration  go to the Visual Studio Code official documentation

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Install the Python extension  Python should be installed in your system   To install the Python Extension  press Ctrl   Shift   X and then type  python  and enter  Install the extension   Open the file containing Python code  Yes  A  py file   Now to run the  py code  simply right click on the editor screen and hit  Run Python File in the Terminal   That s it    Now this is the additional step  Actually I got irritated by clicking again and again  so I set up the keyboard shortcut   Hit that Settings-type-looking-like icon on bottom-left side   Keyboard Shortcuts   type  Run Python File in the Terminal   Now you will see that   sign  go choose your shortcut  You re done

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If I just want to run the Python file in the terminal  I ll make a keyboard shortcut for the command because there isn t one by default  you need to have the Python interpreter executable in your path    Go to Preferences   Keyboard Shortcuts Type  run Python file in terminal  Click on the     for that command and enter your keyboard shortcut  I use Ctrl   Alt   N

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Note  You must have Python Extension By Microsoft installed in Visual Studio Code  and the Python interpreter selected in the lower-left corner   Go to File   Preferences   Keyboard Shortcuts  alternatively  you can press Ctrl   K   S  In the search box  enter python execInTerminal Double click that result  alternatively  you can click the plus icon  Press Ctrl   Alt   B to register this as the keybinding  alternatively  you can enter your own keybinding  Now you can close the Keyboard Shortcuts tab Go to the Python file you want to run and press Ctrl   Alt   B   alternatively  you can press the keybinding you set  to run it  The output will be shown in the bottom terminal tab

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Here s the current  September 2018  extensions for running Python code  Official Python extension  This is a must install  Code Runner  Incredibly useful for all sorts of languages  not just Python  I would highly recommend installing  AREPL  Real-time Python scratchpad that displays your variables in a side window  I m the creator of this  so obviously I think it s great  but I can t give a unbiased opinion           Wolf  Real-time Python scratchpad that displays results inline And of course if you use the integrated terminal you can run Python code in there and not have to install any extensions

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First you have install an extension called  quot Code Runner quot  After than look at the right top corner of VS Code  you will see the run button and hit this  And you can see at the bottom of vs code your code is executed  You can make your own keyboard shortcut for  quot Code Runner quot  to speed up your coding

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Here is how to configure Task Runner in Visual Studio Code to run a  py file  In your console  press Ctrl   Shift   P  Windows  or Cmd   Shift   P  Apple   This brings up a search box where you search for  quot Configure Task Runner quot   If this is the first time you open the  quot Task  Configure Task Runner quot   you need to select  quot other quot  at the bottom of the next selection list  This will bring up the properties which you can then change to suit your preference  In this case you want to change the following properties   Change the Command property from  quot tsc quot   TypeScript  to  quot Python quot  Change showOutput from  quot silent quot  to  quot Always quot  Change args  Arguments  from   quot Helloworld ts quot   to   quot   file  quot    filename  Delete the last property problemMatcher Save the changes made   You can now open your  py file and run it nicely with the shortcut Ctrl   Shift   B  Windows  or Cmd   Shift   B  Apple

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Super simple  Press the F5 key and the code will run  If a breakpoint is set  pressing F5 will stop at the breakpoint and run the code in debug mode  Other Method - To add Shortcut Note  You must have Python Extension By Microsoft installed in Visual Studio Code  and the Python interpreter selected in the lower-left corner  Go to File   Preferences   Keyboard Shortcuts  alternatively  you can press Ctrl   K   S  In the search box  enter python execInTerminal Double click that result  alternatively  you can click the plus icon  Press Ctrl   Alt   B to register this as the keybinding  alternatively  you can enter your own keybinding  Now you can close the Keyboard Shortcuts tab Go to the Python file you want to run and press Ctrl   Alt   B  alternatively  you can press the keybinding you set  to run it  The output will be shown in the bottom terminal tab

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If you are running code and want to take input via running your program in the terminal  the best thing to do is to run it in terminal directly by just right click and choose  quot Run Python File in Terminal quot

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If you have a project consisting of multiple Python files and you want to start running debugging with the main program independent of which file is current you create the following launch configuration  change MyMain py to your main file        quot version quot    quot 0 2 0 quot      quot configurations quot                  quot name quot    quot Python  Main File quot          quot type quot    quot python quot          quot request quot    quot launch quot          quot program quot    quot   workspaceFolder  MyMain py quot          quot console quot    quot integratedTerminal quot          quot cwd quot    quot   workspaceFolder  quot

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There is a much easier way to run Python  and it doesn t need any configuration   Install the Code Runner Extension  Open the Python code file in Text Editor  To run Python code    use shortcut Ctrl   Alt   N or press F1 and then select type Run Code  or right click the Text Editor and then click Run Code in the editor context menu or click the Run Code button in the editor title menu or click Run Code button in the context menu of file explorer   To stop the running code    use shortcut Ctrl   Alt   M or press F1 and then select type Stop Code Run or right click the Output Channel and then click Stop Code Run in the context menu   If you want to add the Python path  you could go to File   Preference   Settings  and add the Python path like below   quot code-runner executorMap quot        quot python quot    quot   quot C   Program Files  Python35  python exe  quot  -u quot     In case you have installed the Python extension and manually set your interpreter already  you could configure your settings json file as follows         quot python pythonPath quot    quot C     python36    python36 exe quot        quot code-runner executorMap quot                  quot python quot    quot  pythonPath -u  fullFileName quot

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All these answers are obsolete now  Currently you have to   install the Python language extension  and Python  obviously  open folder  important    open any Python file inside that folder switch to debug  quot tab quot     and click on the gearbox  with hint  Configure of Fix  launch json    save the opened launch json file  it s placed in  vscode subdirectory in the folder opened in step  2  finally  click the green triangle or hit F5  No additional extensions or manual launch json editing is required now

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So there are four ways to run Python in Visual Studio Code so far   Via an integrated terminal  come on  it s integrated  So technically you run it from within Visual Studio Code      No need to install any extension  No need to create and configure anything  assuming that you already have python in your  PATH    Space  open terminal  and python my file py  run file     Via custom Task  accepted Fenton s answer     No need to install any extension  Default Visual Studio Code s way of doing things  Beware not to copy-paste the answer because its problemMatcher pattern regexp is broken and it hangs the editor  It s better to either delete problemMatcher or change the regexp to at least    s          Via Code Runner extension   JanHan s answer     Need to configure code-runner executorMap in User Settings  add path to your python   Very helpful extension especially if you run not only Python in Visual Studio Code    Via Microsoft s official Python extension  vlad2135 s answer     Need to create launch js  a couple of clicks in Visual Studio Code s Debug tab   The extension is a must-have for those who wants to use Visual Studio Code as a primary IDE for Python

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in new Version of VSCode  2019 and newer  We have run and debug Button for python  Debug  F5 Run without Debug  Ctrl   F5 So you can change it by go to File  gt  Preferences  gt  Keyboard Shortcuts search for RUN  start Without Debugging and change Shortcut to what you want  its so easy and work for Me  my VSCode Version is 1 51 but new update is available

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There is a Run Python File in Terminal command available in the Python for Visual Studio Code extension

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As stated in Visual Studio Code documentation  just right-click anywhere in the editor and select Run Python File in Terminal

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You can add a custom task to do this  Here is a basic custom task for Python         quot version quot    quot 0 1 0 quot        quot command quot    quot c   Python34  python quot        quot args quot     quot app py quot         quot problemMatcher quot              quot fileLocation quot     quot relative quot    quot   workspaceRoot  quot             quot pattern quot                  quot regexp quot    quot       s  quot                quot message quot   1                    You add this to file tasks json and press Ctrl   Shift   B to run it

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I had installed Python via Anaconda  By starting Visual Studio Code via Anaconda I was able to run Python programs  However  I couldn t find any shortcut way  hotkey  to directly run  py files   Using the latest version as of Feb 21st 2019 with the Python extension which came with Visual Studio Code  Link  Python extension for Visual Studio Code  The following worked   Right clicking and selecting  Run Python File in Terminal  worked for me  Ctrl   A then Shift   Enter  on Windows   The below is similar to what  jdhao did  This is what I did to get the hotkey   Ctrl   Shift   B    Run build task It gives an option to configure I clicked on it to get more options  I clicked on Other config A  tasks json  file opened  I made the code look like this                   See https   go microsoft com fwlink  LinkId 733558            for the documentation about the tasks json format          quot version quot    quot 2 0 0 quot            quot tasks quot                                    quot label quot    quot Run Python File quot     this is the label I gave                  quot type quot    quot shell quot                    quot command quot    quot python quot                    quot args quot     quot   file  quot    After saving it  the file changed to this                   See https   go microsoft com fwlink  LinkId 733558            for the documentation about the tasks json format          quot version quot    quot 2 0 0 quot            quot tasks quot                                    quot label quot    quot Run Python File quot                    quot type quot    quot shell quot                    quot command quot    quot python quot                    quot args quot                          quot   file  quot                                      quot group quot                          quot kind quot    quot build quot                        quot isDefault quot   true                                                   After saving the file  tasks json   go to your Python code and press Ctrl   Shift   B  Then click on Run task   Run Python File    This is the label that you gave   Now every time that you press Ctrl   Shift   B  the Python file will automatically run and show you the output

[python] How to execute Python code from within Visual Studio Code

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