How to load/edit/run/save text files (.py) into an IPython notebook cell?
I've recently moved over to using IPython notebooks as part of my workflow. However, I've not been successful in finding a way to import .py files into the individual cells of an open IPython notebook so that they can edited, run and then saved. Can this be done?
I've found this in the documentation which tells me how to import .py files as new notebooks but this falls short of what I want to achieve.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Answer
EDIT: Starting from IPython 3 (now Jupyter project), the notebook has a text editor that can be used as a more convenient alternative to load/edit/save text files.
A text file can be loaded in a notebook cell with the magic command %load.
If you execute a cell containing:
%load filename.py
the content of filename.py will be loaded in the next cell. You can edit and execute it as usual.
To save the cell content back into a file add the cell-magic %%writefile filename.py at the beginning of the cell and run it. Beware that if a file with the same name already exists it will be silently overwritten.
To see the help for any magic command add a ?: like %load? or %%writefile?.
For general help on magic functions type "%magic" For a list of the available magic functions, use %lsmagic. For a description of any of them, type %magic_name?, e.g. '%cd?'.
See also: Magic functions from the official IPython docs.