Jupyter notebook

Draft

Introduction

Jupyter notebook, python. A “web-based computational environment,” combines executable code, data outputs, visualizations, and rich narrative text into a single document. It streamlines both the analytical process and the management of data-driven projects.

Project homepage: https://jupyter.org/

Wikipedia

Besides the python kernel, Jupyter kernels include

Cytoscape, “an open source software platform for visualizing complex networks and integrating these with any type of attribute data,” (from the homepage).

SageMATH, “a free open-source mathematics software system licensed under the GPL. It builds on top of many existing open-source packages: NumPy, SciPy, matplotlib, Sympy, Maxima, GAP, FLINT, R and many more,” (from SageMath homepage).

and, of course R, which, along with python and Julia, is one of the core programming languages available in Jupyter. We present how to install the IRkernel on this page.

In the cloud

Access to Jupyter notebook was discussed for running R in the cloud.

Local installation

From a script with the R app open, copy this R code.

# install latest python 3.12.4
# https://www.python.org/

# https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/
# macOS universal installer
# https://www.python.org/downloads/macos/

# default python on macOS
# see how to bash alias at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18425379/how-to-set-pythons-default-version-to-3-x-on-os-x

# Open terminal
python3 --version
python3 -m pip --version
# pip3 install jupyterlab

pip install jupyterlab
jupyter lab
browser opens http://localhost:8888/lab

End R code.

Install IRkernel from CRAN

IRkernel acts as an essential translator and execution bridge: Jupyter is built on a decoupled architecture — the frontend web interface (where you type) is entirely separated from the backend engine that runs our code.

Installation requires use of your terminal app.

# Run R in terminal as administrator
sudo R
# At R prompt enter
install.packages("IRkernel")
# Making the kernel available to Jupyter
IRkernel::installspec(user = FALSE)

End R code.

Run R as Jupyter Notebook

In the terminal (Fig 1), type at the bash shell line

jupyter lab

start jupyter lab in terminal

Figure 1. Screenshot of macOS terminal with command to start Jupyter lab.

Set working drive, then load kernel. Select the R kernel and create a new Notebook, Figure 43  (ie. don’t select a Console, Fig 2).

jupyter start page, select kernel

Figure 2. Screenshot of Jupyter Lab. Select R icon under Notebook to set IRkernel.

Ready to go, Figure 3.

R Jupyter Notebook

Figure 3. Screenshot of Jupyter Notebook running the IRkernel.

Set the runtime to R (Fig 4).

R running as Console in Jupyter

Figure 4. Screenshot of Jupyter Console running R.

It’s easy to switch kernels. Let’s say you started Jupyter Lab and notice that Python is running (Fig 5). Click on the kernel name — see green arrow in Figure 5 — to bring up a popup menu, Fig 6.

identify kernel

Figure 5. Screenshot of Notebook with Python set as kernel.

switch kernel popup menu

Figure 6. Screenshot of select kernel popup menu.

Click on the drop arrow and select R kernel (Fig 2), then click on blue Select button (see Figure 7).

switch kernel, select R

Figure 7. Screenshot of installed kernels.

Confirm R is running (Fig 8, green circle).

kernel set to R

Figure 8. Screenshot Jupyter Notebook, confirm R runtime is set (green circle).

References and additional resources

Kluyver, T., Ragan-Kelley, B., Pé, Rez, F., Granger, B., Bussonnier, M., Frederic, J., Kelley, K., Hamrick, J., Grout, J., Corlay, S., Ivanov, P., Avila, D., n, Abdalla, S., Willing, C., & Team, J. D. (2016). Jupyter Notebooks – a publishing format for reproducible computational workflows. In Positioning and Power in Academic Publishing: Players, Agents and Agendas (pp. 87–90). IOS Press. https://doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-649-1-87

JupyterLab Developers. (Ongoing). JupyterLab Documentation. jupyterlab.readthedocs.io

Project Jupyter. (Ongoing). Project Jupyter Documentation. docs.jupyter.org

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