the three python compilation states of notebooks:

• an interactive state when we are authoring notebooks.
• a script state when a notebook is used as procedural code.
• a module when it is imported like any python resource

we need to confer with the __name__ and __file__ properties of a module's runtime to know which state we are in.

state	__name__	__file__
interactive	__name__ == "__main__"	"__file__" not in locals()
module	__name__ != "__main__"	"__file__" in locals()
script	__name__ == "__main__"	"__file__" in locals()

python state logic

the three conditions are expressed in python code below

MAIN, FILE = __name__ == "__main__", "__file__" in locals()
INTERACTIVE = MAIN and not FILE
SCRIPT = MAIN and FILE
MODULE = FILE and not MAIN

these states let us write multi purpose documents that can be used in multiple contexts and sharing the benefits of all of them.

def a_bad_ass_function(who: str = "you"):

tells you who the bad ass is.

    >>> a_bad_ass_function()
    you are bad ass.
    
    print(F"{who} are bad ass.")

the conditions

INTERACTIVE notebooks and SCRIPT s both have __name__ == "__main__"

the conditin

if SCRIPT:

we import the notebook and run the command line program.

belowis a typer application that is only executed when the notebook is used as a script

    import typer
    typer.run(a_bad_ass_function)

the condition

    if INTERACTIVE:

data for demonstration is computed and displayed

        !midgy 2023-01-09-notebooks-states.ipynb --help
        !midgy 2023-01-09-notebooks-states.ipynb --who "y'alls"

if MODULE:

we import the notebook and avoid running an command line programs. often notebooks as tests are loaded under this condition.

"<module '2023-01-09-notebooks-states' from '/home/tbone/Documents/tonyfast/tonyfast/xxiii/2023-01-09-notebooks-states.ipynb'>"

if INTERACTIVE:
    import midgy.loader
    with midgy.loader.Markdown(extensions=[".ipynb"]):
        import __notebooks_states

    display(repr(__notebooks_states))

the benefits of knowing the state

knowing the state or context of a notebook's execution allows us to write logic that makes notebooks a swiss army knife. some advanced patterns are include testing notebooks or writing command line scripts .

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applying s

TestResults(failed=0, attempted=1)

a_bad_ass_function has a doctest in the docstring. when working interactively we might want to run these tests to verify our idea works.

if INTERACTIVE:

we only want to execute the doctest s in interactive mode

    import doctest
    display(doctest.testmod())