pandas v0.17.0: AttributeError: 'unicode' object has no attribute 'version'

Question

I installed pandas v0.17.0 directly from the sources on my linux suse 13.2 64 bits. I had previously v0.14.1 installed using yast. Now

>>> import pandas
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/pandas-0.17.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/pandas/__init__.py", line 44, in <module>
    from pandas.core.api import *
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/pandas-0.17.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/pandas/core/api.py", line 9, in <module>
    from pandas.core.groupby import Grouper
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/pandas-0.17.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/pandas/core/groupby.py", line 16, in <module>
    from pandas.core.frame import DataFrame
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/pandas-0.17.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/pandas/core/frame.py", line 41, in <module>
    from pandas.core.series import Series
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/pandas-0.17.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/pandas/core/series.py", line 2864, in <module>
    import pandas.tools.plotting as _gfx
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/pandas-0.17.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/pandas/tools/plotting.py", line 135, in <module>
    if _mpl_ge_1_5_0():
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/pandas-0.17.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/pandas/tools/plotting.py", line 130, in _mpl_ge_1_5_0
    return (matplotlib.__version__  >= LooseVersion('1.5')
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/distutils/version.py", line 296, in __cmp__
    return cmp(self.version, other.version)
AttributeError: 'unicode' object has no attribute 'version'

From some posts, I learned that it might be related to the fact that multiple versions are installed. I des-installed the old pandas version using yast and re-installed the newest one, but the problem persists.

Answer 1

pip install -U matplotlib

worked for me.

Thanks joris!