Notebooks
Notebooks are computational documents that combine code, visualizations, and text. They changed data forever, and they've become even more powerful in Deepnote.
What is a notebook in Deepnote?
Beyond being a powerful computational medium, Deepnote notebooks are fully collaborative documents. They combine SQL, Python, and no-code tools into an analytics environment suitable for data teams.
Composing with building blocks
Notebooks are made up of a series of blocks. Each major type of content or action you can perform has its own block type:
- Code blocks enable you to write and execute Python code (or other languages).
- SQL blocks are used to write SQL queries against databases, pandas DataFrames, and CSV files.
- Text blocks allow you to compose richly formatted text.
- Chart blocks provide you with a point-and-click charting tool for efficient data visualizations.
- Input blocks are interactive widgets that capture user inputs and pass them as variables to your Python code and SQL queries.
Blocks can easily be added to your notebook via the add block (+) menu or by selecting a block category from the bottom of your notebook.
Executing blocks to generate results
In order to see output from your code, you need to execute the corresponding block. You can do this in three ways:
- Click the Run notebook button at the top of the notebook. This will execute all blocks from top to bottom. Execution will stop at any block that produces an error.
- Click the Run button on the block's sidebar menu.
- Press Cmd/Ctrl + Enter on your keyboard while focused on a block.
Exploring helpful block operations
You can access a set of standard block operations in the block's sidebar menu. Besides executing them, you can also comment, share, and delete blocks. Even more options are available in the block actions menu, including duplicating or moving blocks up and down. Options can be specific to the given block type, so it’s always worth exploring this menu.
Changing the working directory of a notebook
By default, the working directory of your notebook is the same as the root of the file system in the right sidebar. Its absolute path is /work. To change a notebook's working directory, click its context menu, scroll down to WORKING DIRECTORY and click the ⚙️ symbol.