View dataframe while debugging in VS Code

Microsoft VSCode team finally made this feature available with the January 2021 product update. More details could be found in official blog

As pointed out by @wisbucky, Jupyter VSCode extension is prerequisite for this functionality.

It works like a charm and is very intuitive. In short:

1. Set up a break point (by clicking at the left most point of code area, before line number)
2. Start debugging (Run menu at top have Start Debugging option)
3. When debugger stops at the debug point, find the required dataframe inside VARIABLES panel. (VARIABLES panel is inside Run and Debug area)
4. Right click on dataframe and select option View Value in Data Viewer. TADA :)

UPDATE: VSCode Jupyter team will be deprecating Data Viewer from Jupyter extension in near future.

Alternative for users is to migrate to Data Wrangler extension. Except the extension change, rest all the DataFrame viewing process will remain exactly same, as described above.

Data Wrangler seems to be faster (in personal test) and also provides Data Summary, Data Filters/Sorts, Viewing/Editing mode, Quick Insights header with descriptive statistics.

You can now print the DataFrame in the DEBUG CONSOLE:

From the Github issue mentioned in @Christina Zhou's answer.

My solution for viewing DataFrames in a tabular format while debugging is to simply copy and paste them into an Excel spreadsheet using

df.to_clipboard()

from the debug console. Even some of my colleagues running PyCharm are using this technique, since it gives you way more flexibility to inspect your data.

It seems like currently you can do it only using the Jupyter notebook in VS Code, using the variables explorer.

So it looks like this isn't a thing right now in VS Code.

If anyone wants to show their support for the development of this feature, I found this open issue here: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-python/issues/7063

you can use the view() function from xlwings library. It will show you the DataFrame in Excel:

import pandas as pd
from xlwings import view

df = pd.DataFrame({'A':[1,2], 'B':[3,4]})
view(df)

A better way would be to convert the function to pandas method:

from pandas.core.base import PandasObject
PandasObject.view = view

now you only need to type:

df.view()

I just want to add a trick that helps me visualize dataframes with many rows in the debug console

By default, the debug console does not display all dataframe rows and substitutes some of them with ... as seen below

You can bypass this by changing the pandas settings in the debug console

import pandas as pd
pd.set_option('display.max_rows', None)  # Display all rows

Then you will be able to view all the rows of the dataframe 🍺

In addition if you have a dataframe with many columns you can use the following options to view them

import pandas as pd
pd.set_option('display.max_columns', None) # Display all columns
pd.set_option('display.width', 1000) # Set the width to a high number of chars so that a row is displayed in one line

For the different options and what they do see the pandas user guide

Install the Jupyter extension. This provides the View Value in Data Viewer features.

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-toolsai.jupyter

The Data Viewer Seems to be still working with the Data Wrangler extension:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/python/data-wrangler-release/

Right click on a data farme variable in the Variables window and then on "View Value in Data Viewer"

And the DF is displayed in the Data Wrangler editor with a bunch of options:

Note that it might still require the Jupyter extension as I also have it enable at the time of testing this.

For any one wondering how to view the content of pandas dataframe in Visual Studio 2022, the following can be done:

1. Open 'Immediate Window' (Debug->Windows->Immediate)

2. Optionally run the following commands in the immediate window once:

   pd.set_option('display.max_rows', None)
   pd.set_option('display.width', None)
   
   pd.set_option('display.max_columns', None)
   

3. now type the variable name in immediate window and enter. You will see the data in the dataframe in the immediate window.

Two more options for vscode are the following ones:

• jupyter notebooks
• saving to CSV and using the edit csv extension

Both require more effort but the view is more helpful.

Download the extensions Data Wrangler and Jupyter. Then right_click your dataframe and select the option to "open in an interactive window". In this window that will show up you click "variables" and then select the data_frame and it will show you a table

Another way to do it if breakpoint is clunky:

command + shift + p (mac os)

'Jupyter: Open variables view' then click on the small two boxes with the arrow.

Personally, I find this easier and you could create a custom shortcut to bring up the 'Jupyter: Open variables view' for speed