Is there a way to use a variable inspector on Google Colab?

Question

This is my first time working on Google Colab. Is it possible to use a variable inspector in Google Collab ? And if so, how ?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Update: as of 2022-02-22, Colab has its own variable inspector. You can access it from the left panel.

---

Yes. This is how I do it.

Place this code into one code cell and run it.

from google.colab import output
#I don't know why nbextensions don't work with python3.6 
with output.temporary():
  !pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/Kreijstal/colab_inspector.git 
  !python2.7 -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/blois/colab_inspector.git #yes, really.
  !jupyter nbextension install --py inspector

import inspector

# open a scratch cell (Ctrl+Alt+N)
# run there
# inspector.watch_globals()

Open a scratch cell (Ctrl+Alt+N)

On it, run

inspector.watch_globals()

And as you code on the left you will see the variables updated automatically on the right. You can even expand dictionaries and other stuff.

References:

• How to use Variable Inspector in Google colab?
• https://gist.github.com/Kreijstal/fb277585c6b31a4d82bb95cb91caf4e8

Keywords: Google Colab, variable explorer inspector visualize