Visual Studio Code, autopep8 doesn't run

Question

On Windows 10. I did this:

pip install autopep8

and in vscode user settings I have

"python.linting.pep8Enabled": true,
"python.formatting.provider": "autopep8",

When I run format document, or explicitly invoke autopep8 from the command pallette, the error is:

Error: Command failed: autopep8 c:\tca-backend\lambdas\utilities\NetMenuAPIUtil.py
'autopep8' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Clearly, vsc wants to invoke autopep8.exe but there is no exe. Just py. So I created a autopep8.bat which works when I test from the command line, but when run from vsc, it inserts the content of the batch file into the top of the document. (Yes, that's as strange as it sounds.)

All other Python-related operations work ok, including the ESLint extension.

Answer 1

VS code Python extension supports source code formatting using either autopep8 (the default), black, or yapf so you don't need to install python formatting tools by yourself.

The way I use formatting is to set a shortcut in vs code.

Go to File -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts, then search format. Set the shortcut as ctrl + shift + p which is the same as the shortcut of autopep8 or you can set any combination you prefer.

Click the shortcuts in your .py files then you will get the formatted code.

Ref: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/editing

Answer 2

Since you are using VSCode on Windows, please click on the Terminal Section and type

pip install pep8

This will start installing pep8.

Answer 3

for me, the autopep8 doc installation isn't enough, still seeing this error, I had to follow this https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/user_guide/#user-installs. it works like a charm.

I'm on windows so I used this:

py -m pip install –-user autopep8