If you write and execute Python code for software projects in Google Colab, you probably use the online software development platform GitHub. GitHub is one of the most popular developer tools for storing and managing code, tracking bugs, and working with code branching. It enables development teams to work on different areas of a project without impacting other areas.
Or maybe you want to learn how to write Python. The Google Play Store has severalcoding apps that teach Python, SQL, and more. And if you code on acheap Chromebook that fits your budget, you’re able to use Google Colab and GitHub to get your coding work done and share your code with others.
Google Colab and GitHub: A quick overview
Google Colabis a web-based Jupyter notebook environment that allows you to write and execute Python code. You can share and edit your code at the same time as other team members and document the project using charts, images, LaTeX, and HTML. Google Colab is often used to code for artificial intelligence (AI) projects and the subset of AI calledmachine learning(ML). You can use it to work on any Python project, from educational projects to data analysis. If you want to get a full rundown of what he platform is and how it works, check out ourGoogle Colab guide.
It may seem on the surface that GitHub and Google Colab offer similar things. You can write, store, manage, share, and change code. To run code on GitHub, you’ll first clone it to your local computer, configure it with a local integrated development environment (IDE), or use a cloud-based IDE.
In this context, Google Colab is a cloud-based IDE that allows you to use some of Google’s computational infrastructure to execute your code. There are other important features, and using Colab with GitHub is common.
Why connect Google Colab notebooks and GitHub repositories?
Google Research developed Google Colab with GitHub integration in mind. Using GitHub with Google Colab means you may push your notebook edits back to your GitHub repository after you’ve worked on them by simply clickingFile>Save a copy in GitHub.
In Google Colab, you can also open the IPYNB files stored in your GitHub repository after you’ve set up the integration. This gives you the benefit of writing code in an environment like Google Colab and testing it without using your local computer hardware. You’ll be able to continue organizing everything in GitHub and still be able to create branches that don’t change the main branch until the code is committed.
How to set up Google Colab and GitHub integration
Setting up Google Colab and GitHub is easy because Google Research built everything into the default user environment. If you’ve been using GitHub for a while and are new to Google Colab, you’ll need toinstall it from the Google Workspace Marketplace.
Install Google Colab
Create a Google Colab notebook
Now that the Google Colab app is installed in your Google Workspace, you can create a Google Colab notebook. Notebooks are stored in Google Drive, so we will create a notebook there.
Connect Google Colab with GitHub
The easiest way to connect Google Colab and GitHub for the first time is to send this notebook to GitHub. This is also how you’ll save all future Google Colab notebooks to GitHub. The first time you do, it integrates the two, and you’ll only need to grant permissions once.
Google and GitHub make integration easy
Very easy, right? Working on any big project requires the version control that GitHub offers. Branching code from the main source code allows developers to work safely without affecting the rest of the project. After getting their code to work correctly, they can merge that code back into the main source code.
UsingGoogle Colabhelps software developers get that code working by offering a cloud-based IDE and powerful computing power to test changes before merging. These two platforms together offer plenty of tools to work on artificial intelligence coding projects or learn about these emerging technologies. Have fun experimenting with machine learning in Google Colab!
