How to add python console in spyder

Alt + Z or

View -> Panes -> Ipython Console

(Spyder developer here) The Python console was completely removed in Spyder 3.2.0 and it's not coming back. For the reasons to do that, please read this Github issue.

If you want to create interactive plots in the IPython console, you need to change your graphics backend to Automatic in

Tools > Preferences > IPython console > Graphics > Graphics Backend

The variable explorer in makes Spyder great for debugging but it doesn't stack up to full featured IDE's such as PyCharm community edition. In my opinion, Spyder is a much worse debugger since the console was removed so after 2 months of frustration with the newer version I "downgraded" back to version 3.1.4 which I love.

This will get you back to the version of Spyder where the beloved console still exists:

conda uninstall spyder

conda install spyder=3.1.4