Installation

Relax. We'll talk through this in plain words — no textbook voice.

To use NumPy, you'll need Python installed. If you're working on your local machine, run pip install numpy from your terminal/command prompt. If you don't want to set anything up yet, you can try it directly in a code cell on Google Colab — NumPy usually comes preinstalled there.

python

# Check Python version
python --version

# Install NumPy
pip install numpy

# If your system uses pip3
pip3 install numpy

python --version checks whether Python is installed. pip install numpy installs the NumPy package. Use command prompt on Windows, or terminal on macOS/Linux.

You should see

Successfully installed numpy-...

Info

Using a virtual environment for each project keeps your package versions from getting tangled up. Pick up this good habit early so you don't run into dependency conflicts on your data projects.

Easy traps

If the pip command isn't found, it's likely that pip wasn't included with your Python installation, or PATH isn't set up correctly. You can practice with Colab first and sort out your local setup later.

Exercise

To check that the install worked, open a Python file and run the code above. If a version number shows up, you're ready to use NumPy.

python

import numpy as np

print("NumPy version:", np.__version__)

You'll know it worked when: NumPy version: 2.x.x