Python's equivalent to Main calling program and subprograms

Steve Holden steve at holdenweb.com
Wed Dec 1 12:38:15 EST 2010


On 12/1/2010 12:08 PM, m b wrote:
> 
> 
>> >
>> > if __name__ == "__main__":
>> > main()
> 
> What does this mean?
> 
> /Mikael
> 
It's a standard way of allowing programs to test themselves. When a
module is imported its __name__ attribute us bound to the name of the
module. When the module is run as a main program (from the command line)
its __name__ attribute is set to "__main__".

The main() call just calls a function that (presumably) tests the
functions the module provides.

regards
 Steve
-- 
Steve Holden           +1 571 484 6266   +1 800 494 3119
PyCon 2011 Atlanta March 9-17       http://us.pycon.org/
See Python Video!       http://python.mirocommunity.org/
Holden Web LLC                 http://www.holdenweb.com/




More information about the Python-list mailing list