Python, install Pytables: ValueError: [u'path']

Question

I use command 'pip install tables' in powershell (Windows) to install Pytables. Yet I receive the ValueError: [u'path'] . In red is written 'Command "python setup.py egg_info" failed with error code 1' . I have miniconda installed.

EDIT: the full red error message is the following:

'Command "python setup.py egg_info" failed with error code 1 in c:\users\evert\appdata\local\temp\pip-build-9wkucl\tables
\'

Between my pip install command and the red error message is written the following:

Collecting tables
  Using cached tables-3.2.2.tar.gz
    Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:
    * Using Python 2.7.11 |Continuum Analytics, Inc.| (default, Feb 16 2016, 09:58:36) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)]
    * USE_PKGCONFIG: False
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "c:\users\evert\appdata\local\temp\pip-build-9wkucl\tables\setup.py", line 553, in <module>
        libraries=(package.library_name,))
      File "c:\users\evert\miniconda2\lib\distutils\ccompiler.py", line 758, in has_function
        objects = self.compile([fname], include_dirs=include_dirs)
      File "c:\users\evert\miniconda2\lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py", line 473, in compile
        self.initialize()
      File "c:\users\evert\miniconda2\lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py", line 383, in initialize
        vc_env = query_vcvarsall(VERSION, plat_spec)
      File "c:\users\evert\miniconda2\lib\site-packages\setuptools-20.3-py2.7.egg\setuptools\msvc9_support.py", line 52,
 in query_vcvarsall
      File "c:\users\evert\miniconda2\lib\distutils\msvc9compiler.py", line 299, in query_vcvarsall
        raise ValueError(str(list(result.keys())))
    ValueError: [u'path']

Which part is missing? Which steps should I execute before running 'pip install tables' ? Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

This is a problem with not being able to correctly setup certain environment variables required for the setup using vcvarsall.bat . You can download a binary of pytables here instead and do pip install tables-3.2.2-*.whl . Be sure to download the binary matching your version and system architecture.