Setup Visual Studio Code for Python

Summary: in this tutorial, you’ll learn how to set up Visual Studio Code for Python development.

A quick introduction to the Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a lightweight source code editor. The Visual Studio Code is often called VS Code. The VS Code runs on your desktop. It’s available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

VS Code comes with many features such as IntelliSense, code editing, and extensions that allow you to edit Python source code effectively. The best part is that the VS Code is open-source and free.

Besides the desktop version, VS Code also has a browser version that you can use directly in your web browser without installing it.

This tutorial teaches you how to set up Visual Studio Code for a Python environment so that you can edit, run, and debug Python code.

Setting up Visual Studio Code

To set up the VS Code, you follow these steps:

First, navigate to the VS Code official website and download the VS code based on your platform (Windows, macOS, or Linux).

Second, launch the setup wizard and follow the steps.

Once the installation is completed, you can launch the VS code application:

Install Python Extension

To make the VS Code work with Python, you need to install the Python extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace.

The following picture illustrates the steps:

• First, click the Extensions tab.
• Second, type the python keyword on the search input.
• Third, click the Python extension. It’ll show detailed information on the right pane.
• Finally, click the Install button to install the Python extension.

Now, you’re ready to develop the first program in Python.