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What is the use of writing below statement in python - if __name__ == "__main__"

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if __name__ == "__main__"

posted Mar 11, 2015 by Chirag Gangdev

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1 Answer

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When the Python interpreter reads a source file, it executes all of the code found in it. Before executing the code, it will define a few special variables. For example, if the python interpreter is running that module (the source file) as the main program, it sets the special __name__ variable to have a value "__main__". If this file is being imported from another module, __name__ will be set to the module's name.

So say if you are part of the main module then want to run the function main otherwise not then the following statements become handy -

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()
answer Mar 12, 2015 by Salil Agrawal
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