Reusing code from different IPython notebooks

Question

I am using IPython and want to run functions from one notebook from another (without cutting and pasting them between different notebooks). Is this possible and reasonably e

Answer 1

I do call notebooks from other notebooks. You can even pass "parameters" to other notebooks using the following trick:

Place params dictionary in the first cell of "report_template.ipynb".

params = dict(platform='iOS', 
              start_date='2016-05-01', 
              retention=7)
df = get_data(params ..)
do_analysis(params ..)

And in another (higher logical level) notebook, execute it using this function:

def run_notebook(nbfile, **kwargs):
    """
    example:
    run_notebook('report.ipynb', platform='google_play', start_date='2016-06-10')
    """

    def read_notebook(nbfile):
        if not nbfile.endswith('.ipynb'):
            nbfile += '.ipynb'

        with io.open(nbfile) as f:
            nb = nbformat.read(f, as_version=4)
        return nb

    ip = get_ipython()
    gl = ip.ns_table['user_global']
    gl['params'] = None
    arguments_in_original_state = True

    for cell in read_notebook(nbfile).cells:
        if cell.cell_type != 'code':
            continue
        ip.run_cell(cell.source)

        if arguments_in_original_state and type(gl['params']) == dict:
            gl['params'].update(kwargs)
            arguments_in_original_state = False

run_notebook("report_template.ipynb", start_date='2016-09-01')

This command will execute each cell of the "report_template" notebook and will override relevant keys of params dictionary starting from the second cell