Pandas is a Python library that allows Python to undertake large data manipulation and analysis. It offers data structures and functions for interacting with numerical tables and even time series.

In this article we will illustrate how to install Pandas for Python 2.7 64-bit.

Installing Anaconda

To install all mathematical packages for Python we will be using Anaconda, a free collection of powerful packages distributed by Continuum Analytics, that enables Python to manage big-data, analytics and visualisation for Business Intelligence, Scientific Analysis, Financial Engineering and Machine Learning. Go to the Anaconda website here:

http://docs.continuum.io/anaconda/

Click the Download Anaconda Now! link. Choose the Windows 64-bit Python 2.7 Installer option (around 400Mb).

Anaconda will install as a mirror of Python 2.7 in its own folder. It has its own GUI and Python shell that works exactly like Python 2.7. However, it initially does not install Pandas for you. This is because it comes packages with A LOT of libraries, installing them all automatically would be unwise. The point is to pick which ones you want and run the installation of the library by running the following command in the Windows Command Bar:

conda install pandas

This will install Pandas for you.

Install MySQLdb For Anaconda

Now that you have Anaconda installed you need to install the MySQL-python-1.2.3.win-amd64-py2.7 package for Anaconda (this should already have been done for regular Python 2.7. Go to your installer executable (see How To Install MySQL For Python 2.7 in Windows 64 for more information) and now, when the installer loads, you should see two Python’s installed. One should be your regular Python 2.7 and the other will be Anaconda. Select the Anaconda version to install MySQLdb.

Open Anaconda IDLE GUI

The IDLE GUI is not available from the root directory, you have to find it in Anaconda\Scripts\idle.exe. Open it up now.

You can now run any Python program requiring pandas.