How to check python version?

python --version
#Output:  Python 3.11.0

Checking the python version

If you have installed python on your system, checking the python version it is as simple as writing the following code, doesn't matter the Operating System (OS) you are using since python will respond to the same commands on all of them.

For Windows users:

• Open command terminal (search on the menu bar for cmd or press WIN + R to open the run window and type cmd)
• Type python -V or python --version

For Linux users:

• Open a new terminal
• Type python -V or python --version

For MacOS users:

• Go to Finder
• Click on Applications
• Select Utilities
• Terminal
• Type python -V or python --version

python -V
#Output: Python 3.11.0

Checking the Python Script Version

If you need to check the Python version that you are using for a project (remember we can have different python versions installed at the same time on our System, we call it Python Script Version), you can do it like this:

Using sys module

import sys
print (sys.version)
#Output: 3.10.4 (tags/v3.10.4:9d38120, Mar 23 2022, 23:13:41) [MSC v.1929 64 bit (AMD64)]

Using the platform module

import platform
print(platform.python_version())
#Output: 3.10.4

Both options will return the version with a string format. We can obtain this information in the tuple format as well. The return tuple syntax will contain five components: major, minor, micro, release level, and serial:

import sys
print (sys.version_info)
# Output: sys.version_info(major=3, minor=10, micro=4, releaselevel='final', serial=0)

Since we are receiving the information in a Tuple format we can access and extract information using an index or by referring to it's name.

import sys
print(sys.version_info[0])
#Output: 3
print(sys.version_info.releaselevel)
#Output: final

Hope you enjoy the reading and keep on the Geek side!