How to Setup Your Python Environment for Machine Learning With Anaconda

Download Anaconda

In this step, we will download the Anaconda Python package for your platform.

Install Anaconda

In this step, we will install the Anaconda Python software on your system.
This step assumes you have sufficient administrative privileges to install software on your system.

Start and Update Anaconda

In this step, we will confirm that your Anaconda Python environment is up to date.

Anaconda comes with a suite of graphical tools called Anaconda Navigator. You can start Anaconda Navigator by opening it from your application launcher.

Conda is fast, simple, it’s hard for error messages to hide, and you can quickly confirm your environment is installed and working correctly.

• 1.Open a terminal (command line window).
• 2.Confirm conda is installed correctly, by typing:

conda -V

conda 4.8.2

• 3.Confirm Python is installed correctly by typing:

python -V

Python 3.7.6

• 4.Confirm your conda environment is up-to-date, type:

conda update conda
conda update anaconda

You may need to install some packages and confirm the updates.

• 5.Confirm your SciPy environment.

The script below will print the version number of the key SciPy libraries you require for machine learning development, specifically: SciPy, NumPy, Matplotlib, Pandas, Statsmodels, and Scikit-learn.
You can type “python” and type the commands in directly. Alternatively, I recommend opening a text editor and copy-pasting the script into your editor.

Update scikit-learn Library

In this step, we will update the main library used for machine learning in Python called scikit-learn.

1. Update scikit-learn to the latest version.
   At the time of writing, the version of scikit-learn shipped with Anaconda is out of date (0.17.1 instead of 0.18.1). You can update a specific library using the conda command; below is an example of updating scikit-learn to the latest version.
   At the terminal, type:

conda update scikit-learn

Alternatively, you can update a library to a specific version by typing:

conda install -c anaconda scikit-learn

Install Deep Learning Libraries

conda install theano
conda install -c conda-forge tensorflow
conda install keras
conda install graphviz

Summary

Version

First MLP