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pythonpython-datamodel

What does this Python code mean?

__author__="Sergio.Tapia"
__date__ ="$18-10-2010 12:03:29 PM$"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print("Hello")
    print(__author__)

Where does it get __main__ and __name__?

Thanks for the help

Solution

  • The __name__ variable is made available by the runtime. It's the name of the current module, the name under which it was imported. "__main__" is a string. It's not special, it's just a string. It also happens to be the name of the main script when it is executed.

    The if __name__ == "__main__": mechanism is the common way of doing something when a .py file is executed directly, but not when it is imported as a module.