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In Python, the special variable name is used to determine if a Python script is being run as the main program or if it is being imported as a module into another script. The statement if name == "main" is commonly used to check whether the Python script is the main program being executed.

How does it work?

When a Python script is run, the interpreter sets the name variable for executing the script. If the script is the main program being run, then name is set to "main."

However, if the script is being imported as a module into another script, then name is set to the name of the script (without the ".py" extension), not to "main."

The if name == "main": block allows you to write code that will only be executed when the script is run as the main program, not when it is imported as a module. It is useful when you want certain code to run only when the script is run directly and not when it's imported as part of another program.

Here’s an example -

def some_function();
print("This is a function.")

#Check if the script is the main program
if __name__ == "__main__";
  print("This is the main program")
  some_function();

In this example, the code inside the if name == "main": block will only run if the script is executed directly, not imported as a module.

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