Google Colab is an executable document that lets you write, run, and share code within Google Drive. It is a powerful tool for data scientists, machine learning engineers, and anyone who wants to learn to code.
Colab notebooks are composed of cells, each of which can contain code, text, images, and more. Code cells are executed using a cloud-based runtime, meaning you can execute Python code without any required setup on your own machine. This makes Colab an ideal tool for experimentation and learning.
In addition to code, Colab notebooks can also contain text cells, which are formatted using Markdown. Markdown is a simple text format that allows you to add headings, paragraphs, lists, and even mathematical formulae. This makes it easy to create a narrative around your code, which can be helpful for sharing your notebooks with others.
Colab notebooks can be shared like a Google Doc, and they are stored in the standard Jupyter Notebook format. This means that you can view and execute Colab notebooks in Jupyter Notebook, JupyterLab, and other compatible frameworks.
There are many resources available to help you learn about Google Colab. The Colab documentation: https://colab.research.google.com/notebooks/intro.ipynb is a good place to start, and there are also many tutorials and examples available online.
Benefits of using Google Colab:
- You can execute Python code without any required setup on your own machine.
- You can share your notebooks with others easily.
- Colab notebooks are stored in the standard Jupyter Notebook format, so you can view and execute them in other frameworks.
- There are many resources available to help you learn about Google Colab.