IPython Interactive Computing and Visualization Cookbook

Creating an IPython extension with custom magic commands

Although IPython comes with a wide variety of magic commands, there are cases where we need to implement custom functionality in a new magic command. In this recipe, we will show how to create line and magic cells, and how to integrate them in an IPython extension.

How to do it...

1. Let's import a few functions from the IPython magic system:

   In [1]: from IPython.core.magic import (register_line_magic, 
                                           register_cell_magic)

2. Defining a new line magic is particularly simple. First, we create a function that accepts the contents of the line (except the initial %-prefixed name). The name of this function is the name of the magic. Then, we decorate this function with @register_line_magic:

   In [2]: @register_line_magic ...