Defining Main Functions in Python: Summary

What does it mean to … ” or with python -m (to execute a package’s main.py file)

The switch m means module, so from the command line supply python with the module name to call it.

Is there a design pattern/best practice/examples to convert a script file that uses argparse at the top level with global variables, into a module-based format with independently callable functions?

I’ve inherited a python script like that, but need to also use it as a module.

I’m trying the approach of moving the argparse bits into the main() function to preserve the ability to run it as a script, and for module use I’ve created individual function wrappers to take arguments, and the function wrappers then set the global variables and then call the original function (so I don’t have to touch the original code that much).

Very Good

Good distinction between file, module for importing, and script for command line execution of the files .py extension in general. Made name usage more clear.

Thanks, very nice.

very useful, thanks!

Thank you a lot, really good :).

Completed my first course. I new about the main() and name. I’m using this during the lockdown due to the corona virus to brush up on what I already know about python and learn new areas of python.

Very useful, a good refresher course.

thanks, really interesting course.

Thanks this give me the direction to clean up some scripts that I’ve written to make them more reusable.

This was really elegant.

great, very useful and clear, thanks!

Thanks for this course! As someone who has only written quick and dirty scripts, I appreciate “basic” topics like this for best practices.

Thanks, all very interesting. Learning how the __name__ variable works is kind of important. One way I like to use it is for testing my code through docstrings.

So, for example, you could run doctest.testmod() only if the module is run as a script and not imported. It’s a quick way to test your code without having to create all sorts of other test files using pytest and so on.

For people interested, check out Python’s doctest documentation for how this works using if __name__ == "__main__": and docstrings:

docs.python.org/3/library/doctest.html

Just change the argument to doctest.testmod(verbose=True) if you want to see the result of the doctests. By default, nothing will be displayed if all the tests pass.

Very interesting course indeed. Many thanks!