Create and run a Python application

  • 6 minutes

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Now that your environment is set up, it's time to create and run your first Python application inside VS Code.

Create a Python file

  1. In VS Code, open a folder for your project (File > Open Folder).
  2. In the Explorer panel, click the New File icon and name it app.py. The .py extension tells VS Code this is a Python file.
  3. Add some code:
name = input("What is your name? ")
print(f"Hello, {name}! Welcome to VS Code.")

Run your application

You have two ways to run a Python file in VS Code:

Option 1 - Run button: Click the Run Python File button (the play icon ▶) in the top-right corner of the editor. The output appears in the integrated terminal.

Option 2 - Terminal: With your virtual environment active, run:

python app.py

Read error messages

When something goes wrong, Python prints an error message in the terminal. Don't ignore it—error messages tell you exactly what went wrong and on which line. For example:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "app.py", line 2, in <module>
    print(mesage)
NameError: name 'mesage' is not defined

This message tells you there's a NameError on line 2—a typo in a variable name. Reading error messages carefully is one of the most important debugging skills you can develop.