edit

%edit:
    Bring up an editor and execute the resulting code.

%edit (or %ed as an alias) runs IPython’s edit hook. By default, it will call the editor specified by your environment variable $EDITOR, but this can be specificed in ipython_config.py’s editor setting.

This is nice if you want to edit a lengthy function or potentially save a snippet you’ve been working on to a file.

If it is called with no arguments, it will open up an empty editor and will execute the contents once you save and exit.

%edit also accepts arguments:

• A filename, which will be loaded into the editor
• A range of input history, e.g. %edit 5 7 10-12
• A string variable
• A function name
• A macro name

An example of creating a function, the editing it in an external editor:

In [1]: def brilliant_math_program(num):
    ...:     num += 1
    ...:     print(f'I increased your number to {num}')
    ...:

In [2]: brilliant_math_program(2)
I increased your number to 3

In [3]: %edit brilliant_math_program
Editing In[3]
IPython will make a temporary file named: /var/folders/qx/32hkz1f96yb557l4yd0_c6q80000gn/T/ipython_edit_6gzx7_2p/ipython_edit_s5u64by2.py
Editing... done. Executing edited code...
Out[3]: "def brilliant_math_program(num):\n    num = num * 2\n    print(f'I doubled your number to {num}')\n     \n"

In [4]: brilliant_math_program(2)
I doubled your number to 4