🔒 What does this mean?

[obtuse sleet]

if name == "main":
main()

im new and ive seen it in multiple places but im still not sure what it means. Hoping someone can chime in and let me know.

Thank you!

[thorny bone]

@obtuse sleet

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[humble lintel]

__name__ is a predefined that contains the namespace of a module

!e

import random

print(random.__name__)

[thorny bone]

:white_check_mark: Your 3.12 eval job has completed with return code 0.

random

[humble lintel]

so for example, when I import random, the __name__ of this module is random

however, the file that you actually execute will always have a __name__ of "__main__"

checking if __name__ == '__main__': checks whether or not a file has been imported or is being run directly

@obtuse sleet

[abstract fossil]

It basically acts as a guard clause for code that you only want to run when the script is executed directly as opposed to being imported.

[humble lintel]

this is really useful when you want to write code that tests a module, but you don't want those tests to run when the file is imported

[obtuse sleet]

Thank you guys for the response!

!close

[thorny bone]

Python help channel closed

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