How to Check the Current Python Version

Knowing the version of Python your program is running on can be essential for compatibility and debugging purposes. In this article, we will explore how to check the current Python version at runtime.

To get started, you need to import the sys module from the standard library:

import sys

Once you have imported the sys module, you can access the sys.version_info property to retrieve the Python version. This property returns the version as a tuple.

>>> sys.version_info
sys.version_info(major=3, minor=9, micro=0, releaselevel='final', serial=0)

Python allows you to compare tuples. Therefore, if you want to check whether the current Python version is 3.7.0 or higher, you can use the following comparison:

sys.version_info >= (3, 7)

You can incorporate this check into conditionals to gracefully handle incompatible Python versions. For example, you can terminate the program if the Python version is too old:

if sys.version_info < (3, 7):
    print('Please upgrade your Python version to 3.7.0 or higher')
    sys.exit()

By adding these checks, you can ensure that your program is running on a compatible Python version, avoiding potential issues down the line.

Tags: Python programming, version check