In this article, I’ll show you:
💬 How to check the version of the Python module (package, library) matplotlib? And how to check if matplotlib is installed anyways?
These are the eight best ways to check the installed version of the Python module matplotlib:
- Method 1:
pip show matplotlib - Method 2:
pip list - Method 3:
pip list | findstr matplotlib - Method 4:
library.__version__ - Method 5:
importlib.metadata.version - Method 6:
conda list - Method 7:
pip freeze - Method 8:
pip freeze | grep matplotlib
Before we go into these ways to check your matplotlib version, let’s first quickly understand how versioning works in Python—you’ll be thankful to have spent a few seconds on this topic, believe me!
A Note on Python Version Numbering
💡Python versioning adds a unique identifier to different package versions using semantic versioning. Semantic versioning consists of three numerical units of versioning information in the format major.minor.patch.
In this tutorial, we’ll use the shorthand general version abbreviation like so:
x.y.zPractical examples would use numerical values for x, y, and z:
1.2.34.1.41.0.0
This is shorthand for
major.minor.patch- Major releases (
0.1.0to1.0.0) are used for the first stable release or “breaking changes”, i.e., major updates that break backward compatibility. - Minor releases (
0.1.0to0.2.0) are used for larger bug fixes and new features that are backward compatible. - Patch releases (
0.1.0to0.1.1) are used for smaller bug fixes that are backward compatible.
Let’s dive into the meat of this article:
💬 Question: How to check the (major, minor, patch) version of matplotlib in your current Python environment?
Method 1: pip show
To check which version of the Python library matplotlib is installed, run pip show matplotlib or pip3 show matplotlib in your CMD/Powershell (Windows), or terminal (macOS/Linux/Ubuntu).
This will work if your pip installation is version 1.3 or higher—which is likely to hold in your case because pip 1.3 was released a decade ago in 2013!!
Here’s an example in my Windows Powershell: I’ve highlighted the line that shows that my package version is a.b.c:
PS C:\Users\xcent> pip show matplotlib Name: matplotlib Version: a.b.c Summary: ... Home-page: ... Author: ... Author-email: ... License: ... Location: ... Requires: ... Required-by: ...
In some instances, this will not work—depending on your environment. In this case, try those commands before giving up:
python -m pip show matplotlib python3 -m pip show matplotlib py -m pip show matplotlib pip3 show matplotlib
Next, we’ll dive into more ways to check your matplotlib version.
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Method 2: pip list
To check the versions of all installed packages, use pip list and locate the version of matplotlib in the output list of package versions sorted alphabetically.
This will work if your pip installation is version 1.3 or higher.
Here’s a simplified example for Windows Powershell, I’ve highlighted the line that shows the package version is 1.2.3:
PS C:\Users\xcent> pip list Package Version --------------- --------- aaa 1.2.3 ... matplotlib 1.2.3 ... zzz 1.2.3
In some instances, this will not work—depending on your environment. Then try those commands before giving up:
python -m pip list python3 -m pip list py -m pip list pip3 list
Method 3: pip list + findstr on Windows
To check the versions of a single package on Windows, you can chain pip list with findstr matplotlib using the CMD or Powershell command: pip3 list | findstr matplotlib to locate the version of matplotlib in the output list of package versions automatically.
Here’s an example for matplotlib:
pip3 list | findstr matplotlib 1.2.3
Method 4: Module __version__ Attribute
To check which version is installed of a given library, you can use the library.__version__ attribute after importing the library (package, module) with import library.
Here’s the code:
import my_library print(my_library.__version__) # x.y.z for your version output
Here’s an excerpt from the PEP 8 docs mentioning the __version__ attribute.
“PEP 8 describes the use of a module attribute called __version__ for recording “Subversion, CVS, or RCS” version strings using keyword expansion. In the PEP author’s own email archives, the earliest example of the use of an __version__ module attribute by independent module developers dates back to 1995.”
You can also use the following one-liner snippet to run this from your terminal (macOS, Linux, Ubuntu) or CMD/Powershell (Windows):
python3 -c "import my_library; print(my_library.__version__)"
However, this method doesn’t work for all libraries, so while simple, I don’t recommend it as a general approach for that reason.
Method 5: importlib.metadata.version
The importlib.metadata library provides a general way to check the package version in your Python script via importlib.metadata.version('matplotlib') for library matplotlib. This returns a string representation of the specific version such as 1.2.3 depending on the concrete version in your environment.
Here’s the code:
import importlib.metadata
print(importlib.metadata.version('matplotlib'))
# 1.2.3Method 6: conda list
If you have created your Python environment with Anaconda, you can use conda list to list all packages installed in your (virtual) environment. Optionally, you can add a regular expression using the syntax conda list regex to list only packages matching a certain pattern.
How to list all packages in the current environment?
conda list
How to list all packages installed into the environment 'xyz'?
conda list -n xyz
Regex: How to list all packages starting with 'matplotlib'?
conda list '^matplotlib'
Method 7: pip freeze
The pip freeze command without any option lists all installed Python packages in your environment in alphabetically order (ignoring UPPERCASE or lowercase). You can spot your specific package matplotlib if it is installed in the environment.
pip freeze
Output example (depending on your concrete environment/installation):
PS C:\Users\xcent> pip freeze aaa==1.2.3 ... matplotlib==1.2.3 ... zzz==1.2.3
You can modify or exclude specific packages using the options provided in this screenshot:
Method 8: pip freeze + grep on Linux/Ubuntu/macOS
To check the versions of a single package on Linux/Ubuntu/macOS, you can chain pip freeze with grep matplotlib using the CMD or Powershell command: pip freeze | grep matplotlib to programmatically locate the version of your particular package matplotlib in the output list of package versions.
Here’s an example for matplotlib:
pip freeze | grep matplotlib matplotlib==1.2.3
Related Questions
Check matplotlib Installed Python
How to check if matplotlib is installed in your Python script?
To check if matplotlib is installed in your Python script, you can run import matplotlib in your Python shell and surround it by a try/except to catch a potential ModuleNotFoundError.
try:
import matplotlib
print("Module matplotlib installed")
except ModuleNotFoundError:
print("Module matplotlib not installed")Check matplotlib Version Python
How to check the package version of matplotlib in Python?
To check which version of matplotlib is installed, use pip show matplotlib or pip3 show matplotlib in your CMD/Powershell (Windows), or terminal (macOS/Linux/Ubuntu) to obtain the output major.minor.patch.
pip show matplotlib # or pip3 show matplotlib # 1.2.3
Check matplotlib Version Linux
How to check my matplotlib version in Linux?
To check which version of matplotlib is installed, use pip show matplotlib or pip3 show matplotlib in your Linux terminal.
pip show matplotlib # or pip3 show matplotlib # 1.2.3
Check matplotlib Version Ubuntu
How to check my matplotlib version in Ubuntu?
To check which version of matplotlib is installed, use pip show matplotlib or pip3 show matplotlib in your Ubuntu terminal.
pip show matplotlib # or pip3 show matplotlib # 1.2.3
Check matplotlib Version Windows
How to check my matplotlib version on Windows?
To check which version of matplotlib is installed, use pip show matplotlib or pip3 show matplotlib in your Windows CMD, command line, or PowerShell.
pip show matplotlib # or pip3 show matplotlib # 1.2.3
Check matplotlib Version Mac
How to check my matplotlib version on macOS?
To check which version of matplotlib is installed, use pip show matplotlib or pip3 show matplotlib in your macOS terminal.
pip show matplotlib # or pip3 show matplotlib # 1.2.3
Check matplotlib Version Jupyter Notebook
How to check my matplotlib version in my Jupyter Notebook?
To check which version of matplotlib is installed, add the line !pip show matplotlib to your notebook cell where you want to check. Notice the exclamation mark prefix ! that allows you to run commands in your Python script cell.
!pip show matplotlib
Output: The following is an example on how this looks for matplotlib in a Jupyter Notebook cell:
Package Version --------------- --------- aaa 1.2.3 ... matplotlib 1.2.3 ... zzz 1.2.3
Check matplotlib Version Conda/Anaconda
How to check the matplotlib version in my conda installation?
Use conda list 'matplotlib' to list version information about the specific package installed in your (virtual) environment.
conda list 'matplotlib'
Check matplotlib Version with PIP
How to check the matplotlib version with pip?
You can use multiple commands to check the matplotlib version with PIP such as pip show matplotlib, pip list, pip freeze, and pip list.
pip show matplotlib pip list pip freeze pip list
The former will output the specific version of matplotlib. The remaining will output the version information of all installed packages and you have to locate matplotlib first.
Check Package Version in VSCode or PyCharm
How to check the matplotlib version in VSCode or PyCharm?
Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) such as VSCode or PyCharm provide a built-in terminal where you can run pip show matplotlib to check the current version of matplotlib in the specific environment you’re running the command in.
pip show matplotlib pip3 show matplotlib pip list pip3 list pip freeze pip3 freeze
You can type any of those commands in your IDE terminal like so:
Summary
In this article, you’ve learned those best ways to check a Python package version:
- Method 1:
pip show matplotlib - Method 2:
pip list - Method 3:
pip list | findstr matplotlib - Method 4:
library.__version__ - Method 5:
importlib.metadata.version - Method 6:
conda list - Method 7:
pip freeze - Method 8:
pip freeze | grep matplotlib
Thanks for giving us your valued attention — we’re grateful to have you here! 🙂
Programmer Humor
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world: those who know binary and those who don’t.
👩🧔♂️
~~~
There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand trinary, those who don’t, and those who mistake it for binary.
👩🧔♂️👱♀️