Get 'unable to find vcvarsall.bat when 'import surprise'

[bigheadming]

Description

Get 'unable to find vcvarsall.bat when trying to run 'import surprise'. Package surprise is a python package which was installed successfully by 'pip install numpy' and 'pip install scikit-surprise'. I have tried running 'import surprise' under ipython and jupyter-notebook in the same machine, both run successfully. However, 'import surprise' gives me 'unable to find vcvarsall.bat when 'import surprise' in spyder.

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. (This step is for installing a package called 'surprise') pip install numpy, pip install scikit-surprise (see https://github.com/NicolasHug/Surprise)
2. Launch spyder.
3. Either in an editor or directly in ipython console, type 'import surprise'. Then the 'unable to find vcvarsall.bat when 'import surprise' appears.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
I expect the command goes okay. But I got the followings:

import surprise
Traceback (most recent call last):

File "", line 1, in
import surprise

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\surprise_init_.py", line 3, in
from .prediction_algorithms import AlgoBase

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\surprise\prediction_algorithms_init_.py", line 22, in
from .algo_base import AlgoBase

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\surprise\prediction_algorithms\algo_base.py", line 10, in
from .. import similarities as sims

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\pyximport\pyximport.py", line 458, in load_module
language_level=self.language_level)

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\pyximport\pyximport.py", line 233, in load_module
exec("raise exc, None, tb", {'exc': exc, 'tb': tb})

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\pyximport\pyximport.py", line 215, in load_module
inplace=build_inplace, language_level=language_level)

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\pyximport\pyximport.py", line 191, in build_module
reload_support=pyxargs.reload_support)

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\pyximport\pyxbuild.py", line 102, in pyx_to_dll
dist.run_commands()

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 953, in run_commands
self.run_command(cmd)

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 972, in run_command
cmd_obj.run()

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\Cython\Distutils\old_build_ext.py", line 185, in run
_build_ext.build_ext.run(self)

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\distutils\command\build_ext.py", line 340, in run
self.build_extensions()

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\Cython\Distutils\old_build_ext.py", line 193, in build_extensions
self.build_extension(ext)

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\distutils\command\build_ext.py", line 499, in build_extension
depends=ext.depends)

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py", line 473, in compile
self.initialize()

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py", line 383, in initialize
vc_env = query_vcvarsall(VERSION, plat_spec)

File "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda2\lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py", line 271, in query_vcvarsall
raise DistutilsPlatformError("Unable to find vcvarsall.bat")

ImportError: Building module surprise.similarities failed: ['DistutilsPlatformError: Unable to find vcvarsall.bat\n']

Please provide any additional information below
I installed spyder via Anaconda (for python 2.7), hence got ipython and jupyter-notebook as well. All running fine with 'import surprise', including launching python via cmd. However, spyder is the only one that has the problem. I have already installed MS Visual C++ compiler for Python 2.7.

Version and main components

• Spyder Version: 3.2.1
• Python Version: 2.7.13
• Qt Versions: 5.6.2, PyQt5 5.6 on Windows

Dependencies

IPython >=4.0;<6.0:  5.3.0 (OK)
cython >=0.21     :  0.26 (OK)
jedi >=0.9.0      :  0.10.2 (OK)
nbconvert >=4.0   :  5.2.1 (OK)
numpy >=1.7       :  1.13.1 (OK)
pandas >=0.13.1   :  0.20.3 (OK)
pycodestyle >=2.3 :  2.3.1 (OK)
pyflakes >=0.5.0  :  1.6.0 (OK)
pygments >=2.0    :  2.2.0 (OK)
pylint >=0.25     :  1.7.2 (OK)
qtconsole >=4.2.0 :  4.3.1 (OK)
rope >=0.9.4      :  0.9.4 (OK)
sphinx >=0.6.6    :  1.6.3 (OK)
sympy >=0.7.3     :  1.1.1 (OK)

[ccordoba12]

Did you start Spyder from a system terminal (cmd.exe) before running this?

[bigheadming]

I started with the icon created by Anaconda when installing it. I am tried to start from a cmd.exe and type in 'spyder' (as you suggested). Then type in 'import surprise'. Both the same error.  On Wednesday, August 30, 2017 1:23 AM, Carlos Cordoba <notifications@github.com> wrote: Did you start Spyder from a system terminal (cmd.exe) before running this?— You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.

[ccordoba12]

No idea why this is happening, sorry. We'll try to take a look at this in a future release.

[bigheadming]

Thanks for your reply. Please take a look if possible. It's very annoying that I have to switch to other IDE when using that package (python package called surprise) as I am working on some project that I need to use it very often. This is especially true when Spyder 3.2.1 only supports ipython console now (in the past, I could choose to use python console to avoid this problem.) Thanks. On Wednesday, August 30, 2017 9:20 AM, Carlos Cordoba <notifications@github.com> wrote: No idea why this is happening, sorry. We'll try to take a look at this in a future release.— You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.

[MatevzKu]

Same issue here with surpriselib as well
Traceback (most recent call last):

File "", line 1, in
runfile('E:/Dropbox_mk/Dropbox (Personal)/PyCode/Testbed/surp.py', wdir='E:/Dropbox_mk/Dropbox (Personal)/PyCode/Testbed')

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\spyder\utils\site\sitecustomize.py", line 710, in runfile
execfile(filename, namespace)

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\spyder\utils\site\sitecustomize.py", line 86, in execfile
exec(compile(scripttext, filename, 'exec'), glob, loc)

File "E:/Dropbox_mk/Dropbox (Personal)/PyCode/Testbed/surp.py", line 1, in
from surprise import SVD

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\surprise_init_.py", line 3, in
from .prediction_algorithms import AlgoBase

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\surprise\prediction_algorithms_init_.py", line 22, in
from .algo_base import AlgoBase

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\surprise\prediction_algorithms\algo_base.py", line 10, in
from .. import similarities as sims

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\pyximport\pyximport.py", line 458, in load_module
language_level=self.language_level)

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\pyximport\pyximport.py", line 233, in load_module
exec("raise exc, None, tb", {'exc': exc, 'tb': tb})

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\pyximport\pyximport.py", line 215, in load_module
inplace=build_inplace, language_level=language_level)

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\pyximport\pyximport.py", line 191, in build_module
reload_support=pyxargs.reload_support)

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\pyximport\pyxbuild.py", line 102, in pyx_to_dll
dist.run_commands()

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 953, in run_commands
self.run_command(cmd)

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 972, in run_command
cmd_obj.run()

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\Cython\Distutils\old_build_ext.py", line 185, in run
_build_ext.build_ext.run(self)

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\distutils\command\build_ext.py", line 340, in run
self.build_extensions()

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\Cython\Distutils\old_build_ext.py", line 193, in build_extensions
self.build_extension(ext)

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\distutils\command\build_ext.py", line 499, in build_extension
depends=ext.depends)

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py", line 473, in compile
self.initialize()

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py", line 383, in initialize
vc_env = query_vcvarsall(VERSION, plat_spec)

File "C:\Anaconda\lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py", line 271, in query_vcvarsall
raise DistutilsPlatformError("Unable to find vcvarsall.bat")

ImportError: Building module surprise.similarities failed: ['DistutilsPlatformError: Unable to find vcvarsall.bat\n']

the interesting thing is that runing the same script from the command line (outside of spyder) works without any problem.

[ccordoba12]

This is a duplicate of issue #5299.

[jmrichardson]

I am getting this error too. Looked at the duplicate issue but don't know how to fix?

[ccordoba12]

@jmrichardson, we're working on a fix (#6607). It'll be available in our 3.2.8 version.