Visual Studio: Create a Python Environment from SQL Server 2017 Machine Learning Services

I'm starting to experiment with Python scripts in SQL Server 2017 using Machine Learning Services (In-Database). The problem is, I don't know Python. If I run into a Python error, the output I get from SSMS is not looking too helpful. My instincts tell me I'll be much better off developing and debugging Python code from a development tool. What I settled on was to use Visual Studio along with the Python interpreter that comes with SQL Server 2017 Machine Learning Services. I ran into a few issues that I'll review here.

The first thing I did was Install Python support in Visual Studio on Windows. This article from Microsoft was simple enough. It worked for me with Visual Studio Community 2015. I quickly created a "PythonApplication1" project and tried Hello World. But I got an error telling me Visual Studio couldn't find any interpreters.

To add an interpreter to Visual Studio, select View | Other Windows | Python Environments. That opens the Python Environments window. Click on "+ Custom ...". Enter whatever you want in the Description field (I chose "SqlServerPythonServices"). In the Prefix Path field, enter the PYTHON_SERVICES path from the SQL Server 2017 installation. This is the default: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL14.SQL2017\PYTHON_SERVICES". Then click Auto Detect. Visual Studio auto-magically fills in the remaining fields. Lastly, click Apply.

Now when I re-run my project, the error message is gone and I see my "Hello world!" output.

It looks like multiple Python environments can be set up for different Python interpreters. But I don't have that need myself. As I mentioned, I don't know Python, so I haven't done anything beyond Hello world. I'll add some follow-up notes here if I encounter any related issues. Happy coding!