Can't import NLTK in Jupyter Notebook

Question

I can import the nltk package when running python or ipython from bash. So, nltk is definitely installed somewhere (in python from bash, nltk.__file__ is /home/nadine/anaconda2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nltk/__init__.pyc)

However, when using Jupyter Notebook (which I installed using Anaconda, with the 2.7 version of python), importing nltk fails:

import nltk
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ImportError                               Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-2-b06499430ee0> in <module>()
----> 1 import nltk

ImportError: No module named nltk

In Jupyter Notebook, sys.executable yields /home/nadine/.conda/envs/py27/bin/python, while in python from bash it yields /home/nadine/anaconda2/bin/python2.7

What exactly is going wrong here and how can I fix it?

Solution 1

Anaconda uses its own version of Python, and you clearly have installed the nltk in the library for system Python.

But Anaconda normally comes bundled with the nltk-- why is yours absent? Perhaps you installed a minimal version, and the nltk needs to be installed on top of it. Check by running conda list nltk at the (anaconda-aware) bash prompt.

Whatever the reason, it sounds like the nltk is not there. Install it with conda install nltk.

Solution 2

Had the same issue. I resolved it by another jupyter version.

For me it did not work in the classic juypter notebook. I installed jupyterlab -> pip install jupyterlab and start it with: jupyter-lab.

Summary:

pip install jupyterlab
jupyter-lab

Then it worked!

Comments

[Egon]

There I can only see that it is running "Python 2". Is there any way of getting more detailed information?

[Dominique Fuchs]

you can check help>about to see which version python your Jupyter Notebook is running. For me it says: "Python 2.7.13 |Anaconda, Inc.|" for example. You can also use the env command within ipython (where the import works) and jupyter (where it doesn't) to check the details of the environment you are currently in.

[Dominique Fuchs]

Another way to check the python version you're using is sys.version (with import sys).

[enridaga]

After looking into many other SO answers, this one made my day!