What does `if __name__ == “__main__”:` do? in python

A module's __name__
Every module has a name and statements in a module can find out the name of its module. This is especially handy in one particular situation - As mentioned previously, when a module is imported for the first time, the main block in that module is run. What if we want to run the block only if the program was used by itself and not when it was imported from another module? This can be achieved using the __name__ attribute of the module.

Using a module's __name__
Example Using a module's __name__
               
#!/usr/bin/python
# Filename: using_name.py

if __name__ == '__main__':
    print 'This program is being run by itself'
else:
    print 'I am being imported from another module'
                               
Output
               
$ python using_name.py
This program is being run by itself

$ python
>>> import using_name
I am being imported from another module
>>>
                            
How It Works
Every Python module has it's __name__ defined and if this is '__main__', it implies that the module is being run standalone by the user and we can do corresponding appropriate actions.


When the Python interpreter reads a source file, it executes all of the code found in it. Before executing the code, it will define a few special variables. For example, if the python interpreter is running that module (the source file) as the main program, it sets the special __name__ variable to have a value"__main__". If this file is being imported from another module, __name__ will be set to the module's name.

In the case of your script, let's assume that it's executing as the main function, e.g. you said something like

python threading_example.py

on the command line. After setting up the special variables, it will execute the import statement and load those modules. It will then evaluate the def block, creating a function object and creating a variable called myfunction that points to the function object. It will then read the if statement and see that __name__ does equal "__main__", so it will execute the block shown there.

One of the reasons for doing this is that sometimes you write a module (a .py file) where it can be executed directly. Alternatively, it can also be imported and used in another module. By doing the main check, you can have that code only execute when you want to run the module as a program and not have it execute when someone just wants to import your module and call your functions themselves.

When your script is run by passing it as a command to the Python interpreter,
python myscript.py

all of the code that is at indentation level 0 gets executed. Functions and classes that are defined are, well, defined, but none of their code gets ran. Unlike other languages, there's no main() function that gets run automatically - the main() function is implicitly all the code at the top level.

In this case, the top-level code is an if block. __name__ is a built-in variable which evaluate to the name of the current module. However, if a module is being run directly (as in myscript.py above), then __name__ instead is set to the string "__main__". Thus, you can test whether your script is being run directly or being imported by something else by testing

if __name__ == "__main__":
    ...
If that code is being imported into another module, the various function and class definitions will be imported, but the main() code won't get run. As a basic example, consider the following two scripts:

# file one.py
def func():
    print("func() in one.py")

print("top-level in one.py")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print("one.py is being run directly")
else:
    print("one.py is being imported into another module")

# file two.py
import one

print("top-level in two.py")
one.func()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print("two.py is being run directly")
else:
    print("two.py is being imported into another module")

Now, if you invoke the interpreter as
python one.py

The output will be

top-level in one.py
one.py is being run directly

If you run two.py instead:
python two.py

You get

top-level in one.py
one.py is being imported into another module
top-level in two.py
func() in one.py
two.py is being run directly

Thus, when module one gets loaded, its __name__ equals "one" instead of __main__.