We will focus on installing Anaconda Python and ensuring that pandas is up to date within that distribution. You are not limited to using pandas with Anaconda, as pandas is supported by most Python distributions—although the specific installation tasks on each distribution may differ from those covered in this chapter. If you use another Python distribution, feel free to use your package manager of choice or pip from PyPI.
Note
I would say most Python distributions because—being a Mac user—I've found it very difficult (if not impossible) to install pandas into the default Python provided in OS X by Apple.
At the time of writing, pandas is at Version 0.15.1. The current version of Anaconda is 2.1.9 that contains Python 2.7.8, but comes with pandas 0.14.1 by default. Therefore, we will update to v0.15.1 using the conda package manager provided by Anaconda.
Anaconda Python can be downloaded from the Continuum Analytics website at http://continuum.io/downloads. The web server will...