How to pickle or store Jupyter (IPython) notebook session for later

Question

Let\'s say I am doing a larger data analysis in Jupyter/Ipython notebook with lots of time consuming computations done. Then, for some reason, I have to shut down the jupyte

Answer 1

(I'd rather comment than offer this as an actual answer, but I need more reputation to comment.)

You can store most data-like variables in a systematic way. What I usually do is store all dataframes, arrays, etc. in pandas.HDFStore. At the beginning of the notebook, declare

backup = pd.HDFStore('backup.h5')

and then store any new variables as you produce them

backup['var1'] = var1

At the end, probably a good idea to do

backup.close()

before turning off the server. The next time you want to continue with the notebook:

backup = pd.HDFStore('backup.h5')
var1 = backup['var1']

Truth be told, I'd prefer built-in functionality in ipython notebook, too. You can't save everything this way (e.g. objects, connections), and it's hard to keep the notebook organized with so much boilerplate codes.