Colab is a Cloud based platform for Python and Machine Learning.
Python libraries are already available and you only have to import them to start using. You need one google account to start using colab.
Video Tutorial on Google Colab
Advantage of using Colab
Colab is a google cloud based platform so no need to install any application or software in you computer.
Google provide many libraries to work in different areas of Python, we just need to call the required library and staring using them.
All your files are hosted in google drive so it is easy to share with others and manage them.
Files can be uploaded or downloaded from your local machine or from github.com. While uploading or downloading we can convert files to .py or .ipynb or even save as .pdf files.
We can easily add TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) , GPU ( Graphics processing Unit) , CPU ( central processing unit ) for our advance study using google platform.
Adding Colab to your drive
Inside the google drive click New
New > More > Google Colaboratory
If this for first time you are using Colab then you need to add this App to your drive.
New > More > Connect More Apps
In new window search for Colab and add this to your drive.
You can share your Juytor notebook files through colab platform. Keep your files in google drive and share them with others.
Version of Python in Colab
Execute this line , it will display the version of python
!python --version
Adding CSV or Excel files to your code.
We can keep our CSV or Excel files in google drive and use it in our Colab platform.
Upload your CSV or Excel file to any folder in google drive. We created one folder inside our Colab Notbooks folder and named it as downloads. You can give your own name to the folders.
Now you have to mount the drive to your colab file. Run this code.
from google.colab import drive
drive.mount('/content/drive')
You will be shown one link and below it there will be an text box asking for authorization code. Visit the link and collect ( copy ) your authorization code. You must be already logged in to your gmail account to get the code.
Paste the code inside textbox and then press enter.
Now your drive is mounted.
In your left panel you can see drive icon. Expand the directory structure to reach and select your file you want to use. Right click and use copy path.
Now use this path to create a variable to use in our read_excel() or read_csv() functions.
import pandas as pd
path='/content/drive/My Drive/Colab Notebooks/downloads/my_file.xlsx'
my_data = pd.read_excel(path)