Software installation

Python is a general purpose programming language with statistical routines. There are many ways of using Python, but here we cover the setup of two:

• Google Colab
• VS code.

In addition we need the following packages installed into Python, also covered below:

• numpy
• pandas
• scipy
• statsmodels
• pingouin
• matplotlib
• seaborn

Option 1: Google Colab (Recommended for Beginners)

Google Colab runs Python in your web browser — no installation needed.

Steps:

1. Open your browser and go to: https://colab.research.google.com
2. Sign in with your Google account (you will need a Google account to use Google Colab, so if you do not wish to make such a one, you have to use another option than Google Colab).
3. Click New Notebook to start coding in Python.

When running Python in Google Colab, the most common packages are already installed. If you need to install a missing package at some point, insert the following into a cell in the open Notebook:

!pip install package_name

The only package we need, which is not pre-installed in Google Colab, is pingouin:

!pip install pingouin

Option 2: VS Code (Local Installation)

If you want to work offline or prefer a local setup, follow these steps:

Step 1: Install Python

• Windows

  1. Go to: https://www.python.org/downloads/
     
  2. Download the latest version of Python (3.10+).
     
  3. During installation, check the box that says:
     ✅ Add Python to PATH
     
  4. Finish installation.

• macOS

  1. Python 3 may already be installed. Check by opening Terminal and typing:

     python3 --version

  2. If needed, download and install from: https://www.python.org/downloads/

• Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install python3 python3-pip

Step 2: Install VS Code

1. Download VS Code from: https://code.visualstudio.com/
   
2. Install it like any other app.

Step 3: Install VS Code Extensions

Open VS Code and:

1. Go to the Extensions tab (left sidebar, square icon).
   
2. Search for and install:
   • Python (Microsoft)
   • Jupyter (Microsoft)

Step 4: Install Packages (Local Python)

• Open a terminal in VS Code (View → Terminal) or use your system terminal.

• Install packages with:

  pip install package_name

  We need the following packages installed:

  pip install numpy pandas scipy statsmodels pingouin matplotlib seaborn

Step 5: Run Jupyter Notebooks in VS Code

1. Open your .ipynb file in VS Code.
   
2. At the top right, select the Python interpreter you installed.
   
3. You can now run cells just like in Google Colab.