Ethyl 3,5‐dimethyl‐4‐phenyl‐1H‐pyrrole‐2‐carboxylate

In the title compound, C₁₅H₁₇NO₂, the ethoxy­carbonyl group is anti with respect to the pyrrole N atom. The angle between the planes of the phenyl and pyrrole rings is 48.26 (9)°. The mol­ecules are joined into dimeric units by a strong hydrogen bonds between pyrrole N—H groups and carbonyl O atoms. The geometry of the isolated mol­ecule was studied by ab initio quantum mechanical calculations, employing both molecular orbital Hartree–Fock (MO–HF) and density functional theory (DFT) methods. The minimum energy was achieved for a conformation where the angle between the planes of the phenyl and pyrrole rings is larger, and that between the ethoxy­carbonyl and pyrrole planes is smaller than in the solid‐state mol­ecule.