Jupyter Notebook Cheatsheet¶

Installation¶

Platform	Command
Ubuntu/Debian	`sudo apt update && sudo apt install python3-pip` `pip3 install jupyter`
RHEL/CentOS/Fedora	`sudo dnf install python3-pip python3-devel` `pip3 install jupyter`
macOS (pip)	`pip3 install jupyter`
macOS (Homebrew)	`brew install python` `pip3 install jupyter`
Windows	`pip install jupyter`
Anaconda (all platforms)	`conda install jupyter`
JupyterLab	`pip install jupyterlab`
Docker	`docker pull jupyter/datascience-notebook` `docker run -p 8888:8888 jupyter/datascience-notebook`
Virtual Environment	`python3 -m venv jupyter-env` `source jupyter-env/bin/activate` `pip install jupyter`

Basic Commands¶

Command	Description
`jupyter notebook`	Start Jupyter Notebook server (opens browser automatically)
`jupyter notebook --port=8889`	Start server on specific port
`jupyter notebook --no-browser`	Start server without opening browser
`jupyter notebook /path/to/dir`	Start server with specific working directory
`jupyter notebook --ip=0.0.0.0`	Start server accessible on all network interfaces
`jupyter notebook list`	List all running notebook servers
`jupyter notebook stop 8888`	Stop server running on port 8888
`jupyter lab`	Start JupyterLab (next-generation interface)
`jupyter --paths`	Show all Jupyter configuration paths
`jupyter --config-dir`	Show Jupyter configuration directory
`jupyter --data-dir`	Show Jupyter data directory
`jupyter kernelspec list`	List all available kernels
`jupyter --version`	Show Jupyter version information

Keyboard Shortcuts - Command Mode¶

Press Esc to enter Command Mode (cell border is blue)

Shortcut	Action
`Enter`	Enter Edit Mode
`↑` or `k`	Move to cell above
`↓` or `j`	Move to cell below
`a`	Insert cell above current cell
`b`	Insert cell below current cell
`dd`	Delete selected cell(s)
`x`	Cut selected cell(s)
`c`	Copy selected cell(s)
`v`	Paste cell(s) below
`Shift+v`	Paste cell(s) above
`z`	Undo cell deletion
`y`	Change cell to Code type
`m`	Change cell to Markdown type
`r`	Change cell to Raw type
`Shift+Enter`	Run cell and select cell below
`Ctrl+Enter`	Run cell in place
`Alt+Enter`	Run cell and insert new cell below
`Shift+↑/↓`	Select multiple cells
`Shift+m`	Merge selected cells
`Ctrl+s`	Save notebook
`l`	Toggle line numbers
`o`	Toggle cell output
`Shift+o`	Toggle output scrolling
`h`	Show keyboard shortcuts help
`ii`	Interrupt kernel
`00`	Restart kernel

Keyboard Shortcuts - Edit Mode¶

Press Enter on a cell to enter Edit Mode (cell border is green)

Shortcut	Action
`Esc`	Enter Command Mode
`Shift+Enter`	Run cell and select cell below
`Ctrl+Enter`	Run cell in place
`Alt+Enter`	Run cell and insert new cell below
`Ctrl+z`	Undo
`Ctrl+Shift+z`	Redo
`Ctrl+a`	Select all text in cell
`Ctrl+/`	Toggle comment on selected lines
`Tab`	Code completion or indent
`Shift+Tab`	Show function tooltip/documentation
`Shift+Tab` (×2)	Expand tooltip
`Shift+Tab` (×4)	Show full documentation in pager
`Ctrl+]`	Indent
`Ctrl+[`	Dedent
`Ctrl+Home`	Go to cell start
`Ctrl+End`	Go to cell end

Line Magic Commands¶

Line magics start with % and operate on a single line

Command	Description
`%lsmagic`	List all available magic commands
`%quickref`	Show quick reference for IPython
`%magic`	Show detailed documentation for magic commands
`%run script.py`	Execute external Python script
`%run script.py arg1 arg2`	Execute script with command-line arguments
`%load script.py`	Load external file into current cell
`%load https://url.com/file.py`	Load file from URL into current cell
`%time statement`	Time execution of single statement
`%timeit statement`	Time execution with multiple runs for accuracy
`%pwd`	Print current working directory
`%cd /path/to/dir`	Change working directory
`%ls`	List files in current directory
`%env`	Show all environment variables
`%env VAR=value`	Set environment variable
`%who`	List all variables in namespace
`%whos`	List all variables with detailed information
`%who_ls str`	List variables of specific type
`%reset`	Delete all variables from namespace
`%reset -f`	Force reset without confirmation
`%matplotlib inline`	Display matplotlib plots inline
`%matplotlib notebook`	Enable interactive matplotlib plots
`%config InlineBackend.figure_format='retina'`	High-resolution plots for retina displays
`%pdb on`	Enable automatic debugger on exception
`%pdb off`	Disable automatic debugger
`%prun function()`	Profile function execution
`%history`	Show command history
`%history -n 1-10`	Show specific range of history
`%recall 5`	Recall and execute command from history
`%rerun`	Re-execute previous command
`%bookmark name /path`	Bookmark directory with name
`%cd -b name`	Change to bookmarked directory

Cell Magic Commands¶

Cell magics start with %% and operate on entire cell

Command	Description
`%%time`	Time execution of entire cell
`%%timeit`	Time cell execution with multiple runs
`%%capture output`	Capture cell output to variable
`%%writefile file.py`	Write cell contents to file
`%%writefile -a file.py`	Append cell contents to file
`%%bash`	Execute cell as bash script
`%%sh`	Execute cell as shell script
`%%script python3`	Execute cell with specific interpreter
`%%html`	Render cell as HTML
`%%javascript`	Execute cell as JavaScript
`%%latex`	Render cell as LaTeX
`%%markdown`	Render cell as Markdown
`%%svg`	Render cell as SVG
`%%perl`	Execute cell as Perl script
`%%ruby`	Execute cell as Ruby script

Shell Commands¶

Command	Description
`!ls -la`	Execute shell command
`!pip install pandas`	Install Python package
`!pip list`	List installed packages
`!python --version`	Check Python version
`files = !ls`	Capture shell output to variable
`!echo {variable}`	Use Python variable in shell command
`!!`	Repeat last shell command

Advanced Magic Commands¶

Command	Description
`%load_ext autoreload`	Load autoreload extension
`%autoreload 2`	Automatically reload changed modules
`%load_ext line_profiler`	Load line profiler extension
`%lprun -f func func()`	Profile function line-by-line
`%load_ext memory_profiler`	Load memory profiler extension
`%memit code`	Measure memory usage of code
`%load_ext sql`	Load SQL magic extension
`%%sql SELECT * FROM table`	Execute SQL query (requires connection)
`%load_ext cython`	Load Cython extension
`%%cython`	Compile cell with Cython
`%xmode Plain`	Set exception mode (Plain/Context/Verbose)
`%debug`	Enter debugger after exception
`%tb`	Print last exception traceback
`%macro name 1-5`	Create macro from cells 1-5
`%store variable`	Store variable for use in other notebooks
`%store -r variable`	Restore stored variable

Kernel Management¶

Command	Description
`jupyter kernelspec list`	List all installed kernels
`jupyter kernelspec list --json`	List kernels in JSON format
`python -m ipykernel install --user --name=env`	Install Python kernel from environment
`python -m ipykernel install --user --name=env --display-name="My Env"`	Install kernel with custom display name
`jupyter kernelspec remove kernel_name`	Remove installed kernel
`jupyter kernelspec install /path/to/kernel`	Install kernel from directory

Installing Additional Language Kernels¶

# R Kernel
# In R console:
install.packages('IRkernel')
IRkernel::installspec()

# Julia Kernel
# In Julia REPL:
using Pkg
Pkg.add("IJulia")

# JavaScript (Node.js) Kernel
npm install -g ijavascript
ijsinstall

# Bash Kernel
pip install bash_kernel
python -m bash_kernel.install

Extensions and Customization¶

Command	Description
`pip install jupyter_contrib_nbextensions`	Install community extensions
`jupyter contrib nbextension install --user`	Enable extensions configurator
`jupyter nbextension list`	List all installed extensions
`jupyter nbextension enable extension/main`	Enable specific extension
`jupyter nbextension disable extension/main`	Disable specific extension
`pip install ipywidgets`	Install interactive widgets
`jupyter nbextension enable --py widgetsnbextension`	Enable widgets extension
`pip install jupyterthemes`	Install theme customization tool
`jt -l`	List available themes
`jt -t theme_name`	Apply theme
`jt -r`	Reset to default theme
`pip install jupyter_nbextensions_configurator`	Install extension configurator UI

Popular Extensions¶

# Table of Contents
jupyter nbextension enable toc2/main

# Code Folding
jupyter nbextension enable codefolding/main

# Execute Time
jupyter nbextension enable execute_time/ExecuteTime

# Variable Inspector
jupyter nbextension enable varInspector/main

# Collapsible Headings
jupyter nbextension enable collapsible_headings/main

# Autopep8 (code formatter)
jupyter nbextension enable code_prettify/autopep8

Configuration¶

Generate Configuration File¶

jupyter notebook --generate-config

Configuration file locations: - Linux/macOS: ~/.jupyter/jupyter_notebook_config.py - Windows: C:\Users\USERNAME\.jupyter\jupyter_notebook_config.py

Common Configuration Options¶

# jupyter_notebook_config.py

# Network settings
c.NotebookApp.ip = '0.0.0.0'  # Listen on all interfaces
c.NotebookApp.port = 8888  # Default port
c.NotebookApp.open_browser = False  # Don't open browser automatically

# Security settings
c.NotebookApp.password = 'sha1:...'  # Hashed password (use jupyter notebook password)
c.NotebookApp.token = ''  # Disable token authentication (not recommended)
c.NotebookApp.allow_root = False  # Prevent running as root

# Directory settings
c.NotebookApp.notebook_dir = '/path/to/notebooks'  # Default notebook directory

# HTTPS settings
c.NotebookApp.certfile = '/path/to/cert.pem'
c.NotebookApp.keyfile = '/path/to/key.key'

# Kernel settings
c.NotebookApp.kernel_spec_manager_class = 'jupyter_client.kernelspec.KernelSpecManager'

# Logging
c.NotebookApp.log_level = 'INFO'  # DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, CRITICAL

# Shutdown behavior
c.NotebookApp.shutdown_no_activity_timeout = 3600  # Seconds of inactivity before shutdown

Set Password¶

# Set notebook password
jupyter notebook password

# Or programmatically in Python:
from notebook.auth import passwd
passwd()  # Enter password, copy the hash to config file

Custom CSS¶

Create ~/.jupyter/custom/custom.css:

/* Increase cell width */
.container {
    width: 95% !important;
}

/* Change code font */
.CodeMirror {
    font-family: 'Monaco', monospace;
    font-size: 12pt;
}

/* Customize cell output */
div.output_area {
    background-color: #f5f5f5;
    padding: 10px;
}

Custom JavaScript¶

Create ~/.jupyter/custom/custom.js:

// Auto-save every 2 minutes
setInterval(function() {
    Jupyter.notebook.save_checkpoint();
}, 120000);

// Disable autoscroll
IPython.OutputArea.prototype._should_scroll = function() {
    return false;
};

Common Use Cases¶

Use Case 1: Data Analysis Workflow¶

# Import libraries
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
%matplotlib inline

# Load data
df = pd.read_csv('data.csv')

# Quick exploration
df.head()
df.info()
df.describe()

# Visualization
df.plot(kind='scatter', x='column1', y='column2', figsize=(10, 6))
plt.title('My Analysis')
plt.show()

# Export results
df.to_csv('results.csv', index=False)

Use Case 2: Machine Learning Model Development¶

# Import libraries
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestClassifier
from sklearn.metrics import accuracy_score, classification_report

# Load and prepare data
X = df.drop('target', axis=1)
y = df['target']
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y, test_size=0.2, random_state=42)

# Train model
model = RandomForestClassifier(n_estimators=100, random_state=42)
%time model.fit(X_train, y_train)

# Evaluate
predictions = model.predict(X_test)
print(f"Accuracy: {accuracy_score(y_test, predictions):.4f}")
print(classification_report(y_test, predictions))

# Feature importance visualization
feature_importance = pd.DataFrame({
    'feature': X.columns,
    'importance': model.feature_importances_
}).sort_values('importance', ascending=False)

feature_importance.plot(x='feature', y='importance', kind='barh', figsize=(10, 8))

Use Case 3: Interactive Report Generation¶

# Create interactive widgets
import ipywidgets as widgets
from IPython.display import display

# Dropdown for data filtering
column_selector = widgets.Dropdown(
    options=df.columns.tolist(),
    description='Column:',
    disabled=False,
)

# Slider for threshold
threshold = widgets.FloatSlider(
    value=50,
    min=0,
    max=100,
    step=1,
    description='Threshold:',
)

def update_plot(column, threshold_value):
    filtered_df = df[df[column] > threshold_value]
    filtered_df[column].hist(bins=30, figsize=(10, 6))
    plt.title(f'{column} > {threshold_value}')
    plt.show()

# Interactive output
widgets.interactive(update_plot, column=column_selector, threshold_value=threshold)

Use Case 4: Remote Server Setup¶

# On remote server
jupyter notebook --generate-config

# Set password
jupyter notebook password

# Edit config file
nano ~/.jupyter/jupyter_notebook_config.py

# Add these lines:
# c.NotebookApp.ip = '0.0.0.0'
# c.NotebookApp.port = 8888
# c.NotebookApp.open_browser = False

# Start server
jupyter notebook

# On local machine, create SSH tunnel
ssh -N -f -L localhost:8888:localhost:8888 user@remote-server

# Access in browser: http://localhost:8888

Use Case 5: Automated Reporting with Papermill¶

# Install papermill
pip install papermill

# Execute notebook with parameters
papermill input_notebook.ipynb output_notebook.ipynb \
    -p start_date '2024-01-01' \
    -p end_date '2024-12-31' \
    -p region 'US'

# Convert to HTML report
jupyter nbconvert --to html output_notebook.ipynb

# Batch processing multiple notebooks
for region in US EU ASIA; do
    papermill template.ipynb report_${region}.ipynb -p region $region
    jupyter nbconvert --to pdf report_${region}.ipynb
done

Markdown Formatting in Cells¶

Headers¶

# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3
#### Heading 4

Text Formatting¶

**bold text**
*italic text*
***bold and italic***
~~strikethrough~~
`inline code`

Lists¶

# Unordered list
- Item 1
- Item 2
  - Sub-item 2.1
  - Sub-item 2.2

# Ordered list
1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item

Links and Images¶

[Link text](https://example.com)
![Alt text](image.png)
![Remote image](https://example.com/image.jpg)

Tables¶

| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Value 1  | Value 2  | Value 3  |
| Value 4  | Value 5  | Value 6  |

LaTeX Math¶

Inline math: $E = mc^2$

Display math:
$$
\frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}{2a}
$$

Code Blocks¶

```python
def hello():
    print("Hello World")
```

Blockquotes¶

> This is a blockquote
> It can span multiple lines

Horizontal Rule¶

---

Best Practices¶

Use Virtual Environments: Always work within virtual environments to isolate project dependencies and avoid conflicts

python -m venv project_env
source project_env/bin/activate  # Linux/macOS
project_env\Scripts\activate  # Windows
pip install jupyter

Organize Notebooks Logically: Use clear naming conventions (e.g., 01_data_loading.ipynb, 02_preprocessing.ipynb) and keep notebooks focused on single tasks or analyses
Document Your Code: Use Markdown cells liberally to explain your thought process, methodology, and findings. Include section headers, explanations, and conclusions
Restart and Run All Regularly: Before sharing or deploying, use "Kernel → Restart & Run All" to ensure your notebook executes cleanly from top to bottom without hidden state dependencies
Keep Cells Small and Focused: Break complex operations into multiple cells for easier debugging and testing. Each cell should perform one logical operation
Version Control with Git: Add notebooks to Git repositories, but consider using nbstripout to remove output before committing
```
pip install nbstripout
nbstripout --install  # Set up Git filter
```
Use Cell Output Wisely: Clear unnecessary output before saving (Cell → All Output → Clear) to reduce file size and improve readability
Enable Autosave and Create Checkpoints: Jupyter autosaves every 2 minutes by default. Manually save frequently with Ctrl+S and create checkpoints before major changes
Leverage Magic Commands: Use %time, %timeit, and %prun to profile code performance. Use %load_ext autoreload and %autoreload 2 during development
Secure Remote Notebooks: Always use passwords and HTTPS when exposing Jupyter to networks. Consider using JupyterHub for multi-user environments

Export and Share Appropriately: Convert notebooks to appropriate formats for sharing

jupyter nbconvert --to html notebook.ipynb  # For viewing
jupyter nbconvert --to pdf notebook.ipynb   # For reports
jupyter nbconvert --to script notebook.ipynb  # For Python scripts

Use Requirements Files: Document dependencies in requirements.txt for reproducibility
```
pip freeze > requirements.txt
pip install -r requirements.txt
```

Troubleshooting¶

Issue	Solution
Kernel keeps dying or restarting	Check for memory issues with `%memit`. Reduce data size, use chunking for large files, or increase available RAM. Check logs with `jupyter notebook --debug`
"Connection failed" or "Kernel not found"	Ensure kernel is properly installed: `jupyter kernelspec list`. Reinstall kernel: `python -m ipykernel install --user`. Check firewall settings if accessing remotely
ModuleNotFoundError even after pip install	Kernel may be using different Python environment. Install package in correct environment: `!pip install package_name` from notebook, or activate correct environment before starting Jupyter
Notebook won't open or shows 404 error	Check if server is running: `jupyter notebook list`. Verify notebook path is correct. Try starting with full path: `jupyter notebook /full/path/to/notebook.ipynb`
Can't access notebook from remote machine	Ensure Jupyter is bound to `0.0.0.0`: `jupyter notebook --ip=0.0.0.0`. Check firewall allows port 8888. Create SSH tunnel: `ssh -L 8888:localhost:8888 user@remote`
Slow performance or high CPU usage	Disable extensions: `jupyter nbextension disable extension_name`. Clear output: `Cell → All Output → Clear`. Check for infinite loops or memory leaks in code
"JavaScript output is disabled in JupyterLab"	Enable JavaScript: `Settings → Advanced Settings Editor → Notebook → "sanitizer": {"allowNamedProperties": true}` or use Jupyter Notebook instead of Lab
Token/password not working	Reset token: `jupyter notebook password`. Delete token file: `rm ~/.jupyter/jupyter_notebook_config.json`. Start with no token (insecure): `jupyter notebook --NotebookApp