# Using OR-Tools Pip for Python

## Introduction

This guide gets you started with OR-Tools in Python with a simple working
example.

Although these instructions might also work on other MacOS variants, we
have only tested them on machines meeting the following requirements:


- MacOS 13.0.1 (Ventura) Intel 64-bit (x86_64)
- MacOS 13.0.1 (Ventura) M1 (arm64)

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## Prerequisites

The following sections describe the prerequisites for installing OR-Tools.

### Homebrew

To install the remaining prerequisites, we recommend first installing the
"missing package manager for macOS" otherwise known as
[Homebrew](https://brew.sh/). To do so, open a terminal window and enter:

    /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
    brew update

To verify that you've successfully installed brew:

    brew --version

You should see:

    Homebrew 1.6.9-8-g25542d7
    Homebrew/homebrew-core (git revision 0e0c84; last commit 2018-06-20)

### Python

You must have Python 3.8+ installed.

To install Python 3.8+, open a terminal window and enter:

    brew install python
    python3 -m pip install -U --user wheel six

Then verify your installation:

    python3 --version
    python3 -c "import platform; print(platform.architecture()[0])"
    python3 -m pip --version

## Installing OR-Tools

Assuming the prerequisite software is installed on your MacOS, take the following steps:

    python3 -m pip install -U --user ortools

Or, to install it system wide:

    sudo python3 -m pip install -U ortools

### Uninstalling OR-Tools

To uninstall OR-Tools, issue the following commands:

    python3 -m pip uninstall ortools

## Get the Python example code

The example code is located in the
[python_or-tools](https://github.com/or-tools/python_or-tools) repository.

1. [Download the repository as a zip file](https://github.com/or-tools/python_or-tools/archive/v9.12.zip)
   and extract it, or clone the repository:

       git clone -b v9.12 --depth 1 https://github.com/or-tools/python_or-tools

2. Change to the examples directory:

       cd python_or-tools

## Run the example

From the `python_or-tools` directory:

Run the binary using:


    python3 basic_example.py

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Congratulations! You've just run an application with OR-Tools, you are ready to
[get started with OR-Tools](https://developers.google.com/optimization/introduction/python).