Understanding the Colab Interface

1. Editor

The editor is where you write your code. It also includes a number of features to help you write and debug your code, such as code completion, syntax highlighting, and error messages.

Code cells

• The area where you can able write and execute the program.
• Click the Play icon in the left gutter of the cell;
• Type Cmd/Ctrl+Enter to run the cell in place;
• Type Shift+Enter to run the cell and move focus to the next cell (adding one if none exists); or
• Type Alt+Enter to run the cell and insert a new code cell immediately below it.

Text cells

• The area where you can able write any text.
• It supports Markdown syntax.
• You can also add math to text cells using LaTeX to be rendered by MathJax. Just place the statement within a pair of  $  signs. For example: $\sqrt{3x-1}+(1+x)^2$ becomes √(3x-1) + (1+x)².

Additionally you can add new cells by using the + CODE and + TEXT buttons that show when you hover between cells. These buttons are also in the toolbar above the notebook where they can be used to add a cell below the currently selected cell. This makes your code well organized and proof helpful for other people whom you share.

Adding & moving cells using top toolbar in Google colab

2. Runtime

The runtime is where your code is executed. It includes a number of features to help you run your code.

Colab runtimes are servers that are used to execute your code such as :

• GPU : Graphical Processing Unit. Capable of enhancing your graphical interface.

• TPU : Tensor Processing Unit. Much powerful powerful custom-built processors to run the project made on a specific framework, i.e. TensorFlow

• CPU : Central Processing Unit. It manage all your functions such as calculations and input/output of the computer.

To select runtime, navigate to the Runtime menu and select Change runtime type according to the usability.

Google Colab is the short form for “Google Colabortory“. It is an executable document that lets you write, run, and share code or you can think as an improved version of “Jupyter Notebook” stored in Google Drive. You might be wondering about the word “Notebook“, in simple words it is just a document that includes executable lines of code along with text, images, figures, tables, graphs, equations, and much more that even a layman can able to get insights about the concepts behind it not just developers/programmers out there. It is widely used by data scientists, analysts, and machine learning enthusiasts due to its unique features and advantages.