Loading lesson path
At W3Schools, you can try Python without installing anything. Our Online Python Editor runs directly in your browser, and shows both the code and the result:
print("Hello, World!")This editor will be used in the entire tutorial to demonstrate the different aspects of Python.
However, if you want to run Python on your own computer, follow the instructions below.
Formula
Many Windows PCs and Mac computers already have Python pre - installed.To check if Python is installed on Windows, search in the start bar for Python or run the following on the Command Line (cmd.exe): C:\Users\
>python --version To check if you have python installed on a Linux or Mac, then on linux open the command line or on Mac open the Terminal and type: python --version If Python is not installed on your computer, you can download it for free from the official website: https://www.python.org/
Python is an interpreted programming language, this means that as a developer you write Python (.py) files in a text editor and then put those files into the python interpreter to be executed. Let's write our first Python file, called hello.py, which can be done in any text editor: hello.py
print("Hello, World!")Simple as that. Save your file. Open your command line, navigate to the directory where you saved your file, and run: C:\Users\
>python hello.py
Hello, World! Congratulations, you have written and executed your first Python program.
To check the Python version of the editor, you can find it by importing the sys module:
Check the Python version of the editor:
import sys print(sys.version)You will learn more about importing modules in our Python Modules chapter.
To test a short amount of code in python sometimes it is quickest and easiest not to write the code in a file. This is made possible because Python can be run as a command line itself. Type the following on the Windows, Mac or Linux command line: C:\Users\
>python Or, if the "python" command did not work, you can try "py": C:\Users\
>py From there you can write any python code, including our hello world example from earlier in the tutorial: C:\Users\
>python Python 3.6.4 (v3.6.4:d48eceb, Dec 19 2017, 06:04:45) [MSC v.1900 32 bit (Intel)] on win32 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> print("Hello, World!")
Which will write "Hello, World!" in the command line:C:\Users\
>python Python 3.6.4 (v3.6.4:d48eceb, Dec 19 2017, 06:04:45) [MSC v.1900 32 bit (Intel)] on win32 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> print("Hello, World!")Hello, World! Whenever you are done in the python command line, you can simply type the following to quit the python command line interface: exit()