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Python Writing to Files

Posted by Piyush Chawla
Piyush Chawla
Courses Plus Student 30 Points

I havn't understood some part of the video

what is the meaning of - if name='main':

Piyush Chawla
Piyush Chawla
Courses Plus Student 30 Points

sorry it was- if name=='main':

1 Answer

John Lindsey
John Lindsey
15,642 Points
John Lindsey
John Lindsey
15,642 Points 
if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

In short, this will run the main() function (In my example. The main() can be replaced with whatever you called your main function) when the script is being run. Whenever a script is run, Python automatically sets the name equal to 'main'. Now this comes in handy when you import other files. The imported file's name will not be set equal to 'main', so it will not pass the test and it's main function will not be executed. This helps when you just want to use a part of another script that you have written (say just a class), but you don't want to run the main function of that file the second it was imported. And just because I feel like I'm still not explaining it well enough, here is a link to another explanation that may be more helpful: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/419163/what-does-if-name-main-do . Basically, it just prevents imported scripts from being executed right when they are imported.