Does Python Execute Imports On Importation

Lets say I have a module named module1 with the following: def main(): print 'K DawG' main() and a module2 with only this line: import module1 What basically happens is, whe

Solution 1:

Yes, of course a script is executed when it's imported. That's a fact you cannot change except by using a different programming language.

The solution is usually this:

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

That way it's only executed if you run it using python whatever.py but not when importing it.

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To be more detailed on what happens during an import:

If the module is already in sys.modules, that entry will be returned. Otherwise the module's code is executed and the globals from that file stored in the sys.modules entry. So only the first time you import a module its code is executed.