Top 7 Best Python VSCode and Visual Studio Extensions to Install

Python as we all know is a back-end programming language that over time has become quite popular among developers. It can be approached easily even if you are a newbie and are trying to learn plus it has a high level. VSCode is a popular editor and Visual Studio is an IDE that you can use to write Python code with and even compile. We have put together 7 extensions for VSCode and Visual Studio that can assist with Python programming.

It has a welcoming and established community that ensures that all users’ problems shall be addressed immediately. People have created various extensions and plugins that you can install on top of Python to increase its flexibility and compatibility.

Tasks:

It is being used in the following tasks:

  • Scripting.
  • Web development.
  • Web Scraping.

Library:

Its library is its biggest strength which can be used for:

  • Processing text.
  • Scientific computing.
  • Multimedia.
  • Test frameworks.

What are Python Extensions and what are they used for

This is a programming language interpreter which is offered by the app program. Now, it is quite helpful as by this users can write both macros and full-fledged programs to extend the original application.

It provides support to the completion of code and Intellisense through an interpreter who has been selected currently. It can also give suggestions while you are writing code to fix or replace with better alternatives.

What is included in an extension file

At first glance what you need to do is group your code into four different parts which are as follows, the 5 main pillars are:

  1. It has the header file (which is very important).
  2. Python.h.
  3. C Functions which we intend to expose as a module interface.
  4. Tables that map names of functions as Python developers see them to C Functions within the extension module.
  5. Initialization function.

Python.h provides access to internal Python API which hooks the module into the interpreter.

These need to be included before any other headers. Make sure to follow includes along with functions you want to call from Python.

The Method Mapping Table Inside an Extension

Wondering how it works? Well here are the core parts:

  1. ml_name interpreter presents it as the function name used in Python programs.
  2. ml_meth functions address which carries any one of the signatures mentioned above.
  3. ml_flags: It indicates which among the 3 signatures is being used by ml_meth:
  4. It carries (METH_VARARGS) value.
  5. It can be bitwise OR’ed with (METH_KEYWORDS) if you allow keyword arguments within the function.
  6. It might also include (METH_NOARGS) value which states that you don’t want to accept any kind of argument.
  7. ml_doc is quite interesting as it is docstring for function which can be NULL if you are not in the mood to write one.

Initialization Module

This one is referred to when the “module is loaded”. As a must the function needs to call “intiModule”, in this Module is the module name

This needs to be exported from the library which you shall be building. Python headers define “PyMODINIT_FUNC” to have correct incantations for it to happen for the certain environment in which compilation takes place. Use it while defining the function.

How To Install Extensions in VSCode or Visual Studio (Quickest Way)

How To Install Extensions in VSCode or Visual Studio

Python modules both pure and extension are distributed easily by distutils package. All the modules are distributed in the form of source and both built and installed through the setup script known as setup.py.

As it gets installed you can now both import and call it in your Python script as mentioned below:

#!/usr/bin/python

import arepl

Top 7 VSCode and Visual Studio Extensions that are a must have

7 Best VSCode Python Extensions

Python Test Explorer

With this run Python unittest or Pytest tests with Test Explorer User Interface. This is a small tool with a great UI and capabilities to debug.

Jupyter

What amazes us about this is that without leaving your browser you can now code, run and analyze with Jupyter Notebooks in the VS code directly.

We can now edit notebooks with the help of:

  • VS code auto-completion.
  • Checks.
  • Syntax highlighting.

See Also: Fast Python Compilers that are 100% Free.

Docstring Generator

Quite a long task and most of the time to complete this we usually take shortcuts as we do not have the tools to make it easy. It can diminish developers and yes it saves a lot of time.

Want to know the best thing?

It follows all standard formats like:

  • Google.
  • docBlockr.
  • Sphinx.
  • NumPy

Supports the following:

  • Args.
  • Kwargs.
  • Decorators.
  • Errors.
  • Kinds of parameters with multiline commenting features.

AREPL for Python

Have you ever had a terrible experience coding on a Python command-line interface while writing a simple script for one-time use or a program to perform a certain task!

Yes, No?

Well don’t worry as we have a solution for you, we bring you a real-time Python scratchpad.

The features:

  • It evaluates the code automatically but can be controlled from the settings.
  • Local variables in their final state are displayed in collapsible JSON format.
  • Error is displayed when a mistake is made.
  • Offers diverse settings through which you can customize it according to look and taste.

Tabnine

The developers with the help of this can write code faster. It is a textual autocomplete extension. Whenever you pen down any particular string in the editor you shall be shown a dialog box with recommendations for completing the code you have started writing.

It comes with the following:

  1. Code completion.
  2. Learn from projects either personal or from team projects.
  3. Privacy.
  4. No issues regarding licensing.
  5. Comes with both free and paid versions.
  6. Models are trained on open-source.

Snippets for Python

It was developed by Ferhat Yalcin which is an extension that comes in-built with snippet packs. If you are a newbie then this would be of great help.

It comes in-built with many snippets like:

  • List
  • Sets
  • Tuple
  • Dictionary

It’s very helpful because it gives one example of every snippet thus making it great while learning it.

Pylance

It provides users with rich information which helps users to write better yet faster code.

Wise advise:

Please download and install extensions or such packages from OFFICIAL sources ONLY! Recently it has been in the news that multiple Python packages were backdoored to steal AWS keys.

Below are the official websites:

  1. VSCode Extensions.
  2. Visual Studio Marketplace.

Conclusion

Python is already a very helpful and integrated programming language. You can use Extensions in Visual Studio and VSCode to make your life easier and even code quicker with our 7 recommendations above. Python packages are also fairly easy to install on Visual Studio so you shouldn’t face any problems. Do let us know in the comments if you have any more suggestions or additions we could add above. Happy coding!

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Paul Carruthers
Paul is an avid programmer who specializes in Python and Java with over 16 years of experience in the field. He loves automating complex tasks and creating useful scripts to streamline work and make life easier. He is also a massive fan of Linux and currently uses it as his main desktop OS. When he is not staring at code, he loves hiking and swimming in different parts of the world.

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