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Jupyter Notebook Interface

What is Jupyter Notebook?

Jupyter Notebook is an interactive environment where you can mix:

  • Code (Python)
  • Text/notes (Markdown)
  • Outputs (tables, charts, images)

It’s widely used for:

  • Exploratory data analysis (EDA)
  • Learning and experimentation
  • Quick visualization
  • Sharing analysis as a single document

Launching Jupyter Notebook

With Anaconda

  1. Open Anaconda Navigator
  2. Choose your environment (optional)
  3. Click Launch on Jupyter Notebook

From terminal

Activate your environment first, then run:

command
jupyter notebook
command
jupyter notebook

A browser tab opens with the Notebook dashboard.

The Notebook dashboard (files home)

The first screen usually shows:

  • A list of files/folders
  • Buttons to create new notebooks

Recommended structure for your data analytics projects:

  • A folder per project (e.g., titanic-eda/titanic-eda/)
  • A data/data/ folder for CSV files
  • A notebooks/notebooks/ folder for .ipynb.ipynb notebooks
  • A reports/reports/ folder for exported HTML/PDF (optional)

Creating a new notebook

From the dashboard:

  • Click NewPython 3 (ipykernel) (or similar)

A new .ipynb.ipynb opens in a new tab.

Understanding cells

Cells are the core concept of notebooks.

Code cell

  • Runs Python code
  • Produces outputs

Example:

example
import math
math.sqrt(81)
example
import math
math.sqrt(81)

Markdown cell

  • Used for notes and documentation
  • Supports headings, lists, links, tables, etc.

Example (Markdown cell):

# Titanic EDA
This notebook explores passenger survival factors.
# Titanic EDA
This notebook explores passenger survival factors.

Running cells

  • Run current cell: Shift + EnterShift + Enter
  • Run and insert new cell below: Alt + EnterAlt + Enter
  • Run without moving: Ctrl + EnterCtrl + Enter

When a cell runs:

  • In [1]:In [1]: indicates the execution order
  • Outputs appear below the cell

Kernels (the “engine” behind the notebook)

A kernel is the process that runs your code.

Key idea:

  • If you restart the kernel, you lose variables in memory.
  • You must run cells again to recreate them.

Common kernel actions:

  • Restart: clears memory and restarts Python
  • Interrupt: stops long-running code

In the menu:

  • KernelKernelInterruptInterrupt
  • KernelKernelRestartRestart

Saving notebooks

A notebook is stored as a .ipynb.ipynb file (JSON-based format).

  • Save: Ctrl + SCtrl + S
  • Rename: click the title at the top
  1. Import libraries (NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib)
  2. Load data (CSV/Excel/SQL)
  3. Inspect data (head()head(), info()info(), describe()describe())
  4. Clean data (missing values, duplicates, types)
  5. Analyze (groupby, aggregates)
  6. Visualize (plots)
  7. Summarize findings (Markdown cells)

Helpful settings

Auto-reload imports (optional)

In a notebook, you can auto-reload local modules:

autoreload
%load_ext autoreload
%autoreload 2
autoreload
%load_ext autoreload
%autoreload 2

Next

Continue to: Jupyter Shortcuts & Magic Commands to speed up your workflow and learn %% / %%%% notebook magics.

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