What version of Visual Studio is Python on my computer compiled with?

Question

I am trying to find out the version of Visual Studio that is used to compile the Python on my computer

It says

Python 2.6.2 (r262:71605, Apr 14 2009, 22:40:02) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32

What I do not understand is this MSC V.1500 designation. Does it mean it is compiled with Visual Studio 2005? I cannot find this information on http://python.org.

Breezy

why would python be absolutely compiled with visual studio ? There are other compilers out there like gcc, etc... – Cyte

@David Michel, The official distributions of Python are all compiled with Visual Studio. He obviously didn't compile it himself (or he would know the answer). – Aleras

Clearly, my version is compiled with MSC. I am sure the python on my linux is compiled with gcc. I need the compiler version because I have to compile python extension. – Breezy

Does the release type, ie release or debug matter too? And how does one go about finding that out? – Lum

I need the compiler version because I have to compile python extension. See What version of Visual Studio and/or MinGW do I need to build extension modules for a given version of Python? – Unholy

How do you get that version string? All python --version is saying for me is Python 2.7.8- – Michelemichelina

Is there a clever way to get the information in Python in code? – Venerate

Pretty much necro @poizan42, but I was looking for it and found out it with use of --help: `python -V -V' or 'python --version --version': -V : print the Python version number and exit (also --version) when given twice, print more information about the build – Corotto

Answer 1

Visual C++ version	_MSC_VER
Visual C++ 4.x	1000
Visual C++ 5	1100
Visual C++ 6	1200
Visual C++ .NET	1300
Visual C++ .NET 2003	1310
Visual C++ 2005 (8.0)	1400
Visual C++ 2008 (9.0)	1500
Visual C++ 2010 (10.0)	1600
Visual C++ 2012 (11.0)	1700
Visual C++ 2013 (12.0)	1800
Visual C++ 2015 (14.0)	1900
Visual C++ 2017 (15.0)	1910
Visual C++ 2017 (15.3)	1911
Visual C++ 2017 (15.5)	1912
Visual C++ 2017 (15.6)	1913
Visual C++ 2017 (15.7)	1914
Visual C++ 2017 (15.8)	1915
Visual C++ 2017 (15.9)	1916
Visual C++ 2019 RTW (16.0)	1920
Visual C++ 2019 (16.1)	1921
Visual C++ 2019 (16.2)	1922
Visual C++ 2019 (16.3)	1923
Visual C++ 2019 (16.4)	1924
Visual C++ 2019 (16.5)	1925
Visual C++ 2019 (16.6)	1926
Visual C++ 2019 (16.7)	1927
Visual C++ 2019 (16.8)	1928
Visual C++ 2019 (16.9)	1928
Visual C++ 2019 (16.10)	1929
Visual C++ 2019 (16.11)	1929
Visual Studio 2022 RTW (17.0)	1930

Source: the documentation for the _MSC_VER predefined macro

Counteraccusation

such a crap way of indicating the version ! how to make things obscure, lesson 1! Thanks this though Drorhan, it's definitely a "nice to know"! – Cyte

A little longer list is given in Detecting compiler versions during compile time – Unholy

Where does this table come from? – Walkling

Where did the info for 2010 and 2012 come from? – Ankney

@CraigMcQueen here is a detailed list sourceforge.net/p/predef/wiki/Compilers – Counteraccusation

Hi. python 3.7 uses MSC v.1912 64 bit (AMD64). what version is this?? can you please update! – Southwestwardly

Answer 2

MSC v.1500 appears to be Visual C++ 2008 according to this thread on the OpenCobol forums (of all places).

The MSDN page on Predefined Macros indicates 1500 to be the result of the _MSC_VER macro.

This other forum post mentions that

(For reference, Visual Studio 2003 has _MSC_VER = 1310; Visual Studio 2005 has _MSC_VER = 1400; Visual Studio 2008 has _MSC_VER = 1500.)

The above MSDN link said that 1600 indicates VS2010.

Strangely, I wasn't able to find that info about the earlier _MSC_VER values on MSDN.

Frisky

Not the first day that M$ makes programmer life harder. This is why we are a better man now. – Breezy

Hi. python 3.7 uses MSC v.1912 64 bit (AMD64). what version is this?? can you please update! – Southwestwardly

@KhalilAlHooti, I'm not completely certain, but v.1912 is probably Visual Studio 2018. Perhaps download the community edition and double check. – Languor

@KhalilAlHooti, 1912 is Visual C++ 2017 (15.5). See the other answer. – Disrespectful