Dude, it's incredible how simple this concept is when it's explained well. So many other resources had my head spinning about it, but just one 8 minute KZfaq video later, and I'm like "oh yeah well obviously."

Short answer: this set up gives you the option to run (or not run) a chunk of code when imported from another python file

Hi, Corey. If you ever wonder if you're making a difference in the world, then let me assure you that you are. Your videos make learning and using Python possible for those who watch them. Beautiful work. Thank you very much.

Man, this is the first video where I actually get what this means. You are the GOAT, my friend.

Subscribed: That was by far the best explanation I've found on KZfaq regarding this topic. I hope you continue to make videos.

The absolute clear and concise explanation I've seen on this in 5 years off and on of playing and working with Python. Well done!

I have found a way of conceptualizing this line of code in a way that (for me) may be easier to understand ... Think of any single individual who is part of a family; we will call this person Xavier. Let's talk about the relative terms we use when relating Xavier to the rest of his family. His parents consider Xavier to be his SON. His sister considers Xavier to be her BROTHER. His second-tier relatives consider Xavier to be their COUSIN. His grandparents consider him to be their GRANDSON. Lastly, Xavier considers Xavier to be HIMSELF. Xavier is still the same person in each of these relative relationships, but the relative term we use for him is different depending on who we are relating to. So, when we write, "If __name__ == __main__" then we are effectively asking is: "If == HIMSELF" If that code evaluates to TRUE, then we know that the program is running on its own - it is referring to itself. == "HIMSELF" If, however, that code evaluates to FALSE, then we know that the program is running as a component of another program. That is, when you run the code "if __name__ == __main__" and it evaluates as FALSE, then it would be **metaphorically** equivalent to the return values being something like the following: == "SON" == "BROTHER" == "COUSIN" == "GRANDSON" In other words, Xavier is not operating as HIMSELF, he is operating in relation to some other entity (a subcomponent of another program).

It's hard to believe that such a complicated concept can be explained like this. Cheers Cory, the great!

man you are awesome, I started with the first video of Flask series and now I come here for understand the ifmain conditional. thanks for your youtube channel, it will be for very much help, I am a new subscriber, like in all your videos. Greetings from México.

I thought that geneticists are terrible at naming things but coders have their share of confusing nomenclature. Despite that, I got it because of this video! Thanks Corey!

I hope you know that even 6 years after posting your content is still helping beginners like me understand python better than anything else on the internet can! Thank you for your work, it's great! :)

THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE. I spent an hour and a half today rewatching the video i learned it from and trying to get a grasp on it. Makes a lotta sense when you explain and show it the way you do. It's sort of like a validation prompt to see which file is being run to avoid duplicates etc.

What everyone else said: best explanation available. Thank you very much.

Haven't encountered an explanation as good as this. Thank you! The world needs teachers like you.

I've literally been searching for this for the past two years. So simple yet I haven't seen anyone explain it better!

You rock. I'm so lucky, I looked down out of confusion while watching a tutorial because this was used (but I had no clue what it was).. my eyes just happened to see this video suggested, noice

I considered "if __name__ == '__main__'' as some magical conditional check that triggered the main function for me, until I watched this video today. It's clear now. Your explanation was so clear and simple it made so much sense. Thanks.

You are the only one whose lecture cleared my concept of __main__ in python. i subscribed to your channel as soon as I understood the concept. thanks. keep uploading.

I stuck for DAYS on this, THANK YOU SO MUCH for explaining the topic really clearly.

okay, this person is so nice that he repeated the same thing without sounding repeatative at all. anyway, coming to the point, I think for average,slow,diverted students the video needs to be seen twice or whatever, there's got to be some kind of repeatation; but for focused students he's a great teacher

I commend you on your teaching. I struggled with this concept for a long time, now it seems so simple.

Thank you very much - I have read and read on this subject but was getting totally confused. This video explains things so much better. Thank you very much. Your video is very explanatory and well done. :¬)

New to Python, I'm a C# developer, this video was exactly what I needed... just had to find the right one so it would click. THANK YOU!

THE best explanation on the subject. Thanks Corey!!

Sir, you will live 10,000 years!! Thank you for this informative video. Straight and to the point to which I could easily comprehend.

This is the best explanation with EXAMPLES I've ever seen on this. This will help me tremendously. I salute you!

I have read a lot of articles on this specific topic, but none of them could make me understand this "if __name__==__main__" thing. Thanks for making it simple and understandable. By far the best one I've come through!

I spent all morning finishing your OOP walkthrough videos and just ended with this. You, sir, are amazing.

Your clarity is a godsend! Thank you for the instruction Schafer Sensei!

Such a joy listening to your tutorials. The instructor in my paid course just keeps stuttering and mumbling to the point where I lose the will to live. You are a life saver, easily in the top 3 instructors online.

Clearest one I ever found and reference my friends.

this seemingly complex topic can't be explained better that this, thanks a lot for clarifying it...

thos was the best and really honestly ever best explanation for this term I've been always trying to understand! Thanks so so much!!

"So, I really hope this video was useful..." Yes man... yes. Big YES. Damn it, thank you! And it's not the first time you englightened me.

Crystal clear and very helpful series of videos. You seem to acutely anticipate areas of confusion for an audience who is looking at the topic with a fresh pair of eyes and then proceed to clarify these doubts with simple but complete explanations and back it up with relevant examples. There are loads of online paid courses that fall far short from the level of your videos. Kudos. Wish someone could teach the hosts of instructors and trainers out there to emulate your capabilities, many of these courses seem to frustrate new students more than help them.

So simple, so elegant. Loved the way he explained this. I’m not gonna forget this thing in my entire life. Thank you

Finally it makes sense! Great video. So I understand now that the variable __name__ is different depending on whether the Python file is being run directly as a script or if it is imported somewhere else. If someone imports it, you can choose for the contents not to be run.

You say: "Thank for wacht it"... I say : Thank for teach me !!!!

I was terrified by this concept. But it was so simple. Thank you so much. People don't know how to teach, but you surely do...

I'm learning Python on my own and haven't reached the underscored 'thingies', but just watching this video, I understood the whole concept!! Thumbs up!! thx

I found your explanation best........Thank you so much..!!

Great! You're one of the greatest Python tutor on KZfaq

Corey, Man, you are an asset to humanity indeed, keep the good work.

Feels so good when you get to decipher __name__ = '__main__'. For years it was a huge mystery and blindly went with the flow. Thanks for the clarity distinguished mate!

THE MOST cogent explanation of python import machinery available IMHO.

perfectly explained ..thx a lot confusion removed ...

i've been roaming around for two days now. this is by far the best video i found. just subscribed!

8 years later and it's still useful! Thank you so much for the amazing video :)!

KZfaq recommendations can apparently read my mind. Thanks for covering this topic!

Thank you! The presentation of information is very clear!

What an excellent explanation -- I finally had that 'eureka!' moment with this topic after my brain failed to comprehend several other tutorials about this.

Finally. I had seen that scary double underscore several times and couldn't figure out what it was all about. Thank you for the explanation.

Finally got this. Thank you a lot!

Clear conception. And other puzzle is that I'm interested in learning how to execute and preview the result on sublime text after finishing python?

Got recommended two of your videos, this and the working with json data in Python. Both very helpful videos with clear explanations. You earned yourself a new subscriber!

5 years later this video is still great. Thanks for this explanation, it clears up the concept perfectly.

After three years used python, finally, i know why they use it :)) thanks so much

Thanks, clear and super helpful to this beginner!

Hats off! you exaplain it simply and clearly. I have always thought this main story was complicated but thanks to you, now I fully grasp it.

Holy crap I’ve been looking for a good explanation of this for forever. After not understanding when I first started learning I just skipped past it and always ignored it every time I saw it. But today I decided I was going to sit down and understand it and you made it clear. Thank you.

2021: These are future-proof tutorials!

Can't get better explanation than this🙏🏼

Really liked your way of explanation!! Voice, pace, and clarity of information were perfect.

Hi Corey Thanks for making these vedios .. You are by far the best Tutor i have ever seen.. Your Flow of teaching basics is brilliant.. not many cover those.. please continue your good work.. Being simple , clear, to the point is the best way in your teaching .. ..

This is EPIC! Thanks a lot for making this video!

Concise and to the point. Nice :)

Wonderful explanation. As everyone has said, this is one of the best explanations of this topic. One thing to add though. I know many here are well versed in Python will know this, but for those new to Python here is an example of why you would employ the 'if __name__ == "__main__" in a module. When you build a module, you will want to test it and make sure it works to spec. The beauty of it is that you never have to remove it and it gives you an easy way to test out your module before importing it into other Python files.

You are quite literally the BEST explainer in the world! You could take any concept and get the most mentally incapable person to understand it. Great job!

Nice man. Thank you for share your knowledge.

Subscribed: Man you explained very well!

I came here because I was confused by a Udemy course I'm doing - your explanation was fantastic and simple. Thank you.

The way you explain it is so clear and very good. I guess because you really wanna teach and your main goal is to teach people and be helpful. First video watched from your channel and I subscribed. Thank you very much!

brilliant yet concise explanation. ThankYou

Great explanation! I completed a graduate program in data science and none of the professors explained this as clearly.

EVERY SINGLE TIME! I have a python course I'm working through, and its very good, but sometimes it fails to explain things(like name equals main) in a way that is easy to understand. Every time I run into that, I look to see if you have a video on it, and every single time not only do you have a video, but it explains it perfectly in an easily comprehensible way. Thank you for these. I hope you are making some money off them because they are wonderful.

OMG, this is the first time I am getting the concept using __main__, thank you so much for being a great teach!

I'll be watching more of these videos for sure. My 14 year old son is learning to program in Python, but of course in my day Visual Basic was all the thing, so I have a hard time helping him even though I am very good with VB. The syntax is quite a bit different and the way people use Python is also quite a bit different. Even just the fact that logical statements like if, while, for etc. don't need to be terminated but rely on formatting is new to me. No more "end if". Visual Basic is more like Visual Pascal only without dynamic variables. Shows how old I am. And when did we go back to running stuff from the command prompt? It took me an hour to figure out how to get my computer to launch python that way even with the help of a video. Mind you I wasn't very familiar with setting system variables. I also really miss the "Step" debugger function in VB. I found something similar in Python but since half the time you are in imported code I have no idea what it is pointing at. My son would joke "oh look we are at line 1048 of my 50 lines of code". A video on how that works would be great.

Coming up from a C++ and Java world I use the "if __name__ == '__main__':" functionality almost religiously, even though most of the time I dont need it.

This is the best explanation for if __name__ == '__main__' that bothered me every time I saw it in a python code and tried to ignore it and escape from it. Thousand thanks!!

thank you! i have read so many other explanations before coming here and the way you explained it was simple yet clear.

When I found this out at first I couldn't see the usefulness of it but I realized that I could test my modules separately and not have it called within my main program. Great explanation as always.

Very helpfull video , thanks for upload this video

It's funny how almost no tutorials I've seen cover this statement, given how incredibly common it is. Thank you very much!

This guy explains the best...answers all the questions that appears in the mind while watching...keep going

Best explanation! 👏👏

You just cured my anxiety

This is the best explanation to this topic I found till today..thank you very much.

Finally, an explanation that isn't cryptic and unintelligible for a poor beginner like me. Thanks a bunch!

Thanks Corey this was wonderful!! Just a question when I can use this? Any example from any of your practical programs?

thanks mate great explanation

Thanks, this is definitely by far the simplest and clearest explanation I've read.

This video is quite useful and explains the technology clearly, simple and clear. Highly recommend if you are experiencing the same confusion.

Sorry to raise this rookie's question. In the video you use a method in print as : print 'first is: {}'. format(__name__) After having played with it a bit I found it to be the same with print 'first is: %s' %(__name__) I wonder if there is any difference between them and could you briefly introduce a bit about the advantage (or some tricks) of using "{} and .format"?

Very well explained. When would you actually need to use this though? I am having trouble coming up with a good example..

I just started learning python. This was the first video that explained it to me. Thank you

Thank you so much Corey Schafer. This helped me a lot.

I am from china my teacher never explain these things to us thank god i have find this video

Print (“thank u so much these tutorials have helped me so much :)”)

This is the best tutorial so far. This thing is kinda tricky one. Sometimes i understand it but when someone ask me to make them understand, i start thinking maybe i did not get the concept, i have to check again.

the main confusion has finally been solved!!! Thank you so much