[Tutor] What is `if __name__ == "__main__"` for?

[Christian Witts]

On 2011/05/20 01:09 PM, Ganesh Kumar wrote:
> Hi Gurus,
>
> I am new python programming.. I see many programs
> if __name__ == '__main__':
>   when I check __name__ always eq __main__.
> what purpose use these structure.. please guide me..
>
> -Ganesh
>

If you execute the script directly ie. python script.py the __name__ 
will be __main__ but if you import it it's the name of the file.

#first.py
print __name__

#second.py
import first

$ python first.py
__main__

$ python second.py
first

-- 
Christian Witts