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Visual Studio Code Terminal keeps running Python script in Powershell

I recently installed both Python and Visual Studio Code. After taking an intro class I wrote a basic script and ran it in Visual Studio Code. That's when I noticed a problem with the way Python is setup in my Visual Studio code.
Problem:
When I start Visual Studio Code and open a python file, the Terminal defaults to "C:\Users\my_name\Documents Python" (this is the folder my python files are stored in). From what I understand, when you're in Python, the prompt should be ">>>". I am able to run my script but i cannot run any other Python code (ie something as simple as z = 5) in the terminal. If I type in "Python", I am prompted with ">>>" but can no longer run my script.
I thought this was an installation issue so i uninstalled and reinstalled both Python and Visual but the problem persists.
I tried adding the Python file path to where the program is installed to the windows environment under system settings and also clicked "Add to Path" when reinstalling Python but none of these solutions seemed to work.
when basic python code (ie z=5) doesn't seem to work but the script runs fine I get the error message below:
PS C:\Users\my_name\Documents\Python 2> z=5
z=5 : The term 'z=5' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At line:1 char:1
+ z=5
+ ~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (z=5:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException
Below is the error message I get after I switch to python and try running my script
PS C:\Users\my_name\Documents\Python 2> python
Python 3.7.4 (tags/v3.7.4:e09359112e, Jul 8 2019, 19:29:22) [MSC v.1916 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> & C:/Users/my_name/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python37-32/python.exe "c:/Users/my_name/Documents/Python 2/new2.py"
File "<stdin>", line 1
& C:/Users/my_name/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python37-32/python.exe "c:/Users/my_name/Documents/Python 2/new2.py"
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>>

There is nothing wrong with your setup. It looks you miss basic understanding of different ways to execute python code.
VS Code has integrated terminal. From there You can run your python script i.e. file with py extension same as you are on terminal/cmd/powershell. That is common way to write and execute code.
When you type python and hit enter you start python interactive shell. That is when you get >>> prompt. Your python interpreter evaluate and execute each line as you type in and hit enter. Same will happen if you type in python in cmd/powershell outside VS Code. Interactive mode is used more or less to experiment, test simple ideas, simple code examples, etc. but the code you type in is lost once you exit the interactive mode by >>>exit().
for further reference you may check
VSCode from start
How to execute python code

After reading the documentation above, I also had a similar problem after running scripts. I think that VSC is exiting out of python after running a script and requires starting up the python terminal again. I wonder if VSC can default to python after running a script instead of exiting out to powershell.

I figured out what the issue was here. Visual code thought Python was installed in the directory that my .py files are saved in as opposed to the actual location under program files. The path had to be edited under settings.

When you are in debug mode and stopped, you can type interactive Python in the 'Debug Window'. Useful for inspecting objects, variables, etc.
Otherwise as suggested, I just type "Python" in the terminal to get the interactive Python prompt ('>>>').

How to stop a Python script but keep interpreter going

I have a Python script, and I want to execute it up to a certain point, then stop, and keep the interpreter open, so I can see the variables it defines, etc.
I know I could generate an exception, or I could invoke the debugger by running pdb.set_trace(), then stop the debugger, which is what I currently use.
...but is there a command that will just stop the script, as if it had simply reached its end? This would be equivalent to commenting the entire rest of the script (but I would not like doing that), or putting an early return statement in a function.
It seems as if something like this has to exist but I have not found it so far.
Edit: Some more details of my usecase
I'm normally using the regular Python consoles in Spyder. IPython seems like a good thing but ( at least for the version I'm currently on, 2.2.5) some of the normal console's features don't work well in IPython (introspection, auto-completion).
More often than not, my code generates matplotlib figures. In debug mode, those cannot be updated (to my knowledge), which is why I need to get completely out of the script, but not the interpreter).
Another limit of the debugger is that I can't execute loops in it: you can copy/paste the code for a loop into the regular console and have it execute, but that won't work in the debugger (at least in my Spyder version).

If you invoke your program with python -i <script>, the interpreter will remain active after the script ends. raise SystemExit would be the easiest way to force it to end at an arbitrary point.

If you have ipython (highly, highly recommended), you can go to any point in your program and add the following lines
import IPython
IPython.embed()
Once your program reaches that point, the embed command will open up a new IPython shell within that context.
I really like to do that for things where I don't want to go the full pdb route.

If you are using the Python Shell, just press CTRL + C to throw a KeyboardInterrupt. You can then check out the state of the program at the time the exception was throw.
x = 0
while True:
x += 1
Running the script...
Python 2.7.6 (default, Nov 10 2013, 19:24:18) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more information.
>>> ================================ RESTART ================================
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:/Python27/test.py", line 2, in
while True:
KeyboardInterrupt
>>> x
15822387

Python shell in Emacs freezes when using matplotlib

I previously thought that was the issue with IPython, but today I tested again, here is what I did:
Run emacs -Q in cmd window
Open a .py file
M-x, then run python-shell-switch-to-shell, RET, and RET. Then I have the Python shell ready
I in put the following code then:
Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2012, 23:31:26) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
>>> plt.ion()
>>> plt.plot([1,2,3])
[<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x03068610>]
>>>
Actually after this, no figure shows up, and the shell is frozen, e.g., when I input:
>>> print("hello")
nothing happened...I haven't tested other plotting tools but matplotlib. I don't know if it is a bug. I've searched for a while, here and though Google, but no luck. My system is: Emacs 24.3 32 bit for Windows, under Windows 7. If others can duplicate same issue as here, I will report this as a bug.
I used IPython as the Python shell by:
C:/Python27/python.exe -i C:/Python27/Scripts/ipython-script.py --pylab
Then, I input figure(); plot([1,2,3]), as expected, the figure popup and freezes. Then I did: C-c C-d which runs comint-send-eof, and the figure actually get updated! But my IPython shell session is also terminated with the following message:
In [6]:
Do you really want to exit ([y]/n)?
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:/Python27/Scripts/ipython-script.py", line 9, in <module>
load_entry_point('ipython==0.13.1', 'console_scripts', 'ipython')()
SystemExit
If you suspect this is an IPython bug, please report it at:
https://github.com/ipython/ipython/issues
or send an email to the mailing list at ipython-dev#scipy.org
You can print a more detailed traceback right now with "%tb", or use "%debug"
to interactively debug it.
Extra-detailed tracebacks for bug-reporting purposes can be enabled via:
%config Application.verbose_crash=True
Any helpful clue here?!

one solution is:
(setq python-shell-interpreter "C:\\YourPython3Dist\\python.exe"
python-shell-interpreter-args "-i C:\\YourPython3Dist\\Scripts\\ipython3-script.py console --pylab=qt")
The Argument console in the call of ipython-script.py is the important one!
In Python 3 with qt backend it works for me. I don't know how it works with py 2.7. (should be no problem if these arguments are supported for ipytho-script.py)

I think it would take sometime until the problem is fixed. Until some Windows user actually debugs python.el.
Until then, why not try Emacs IPython Notebook? It is a better IPython binding for Emacs. You don't need to use the notebook part. You can think it as a replacement for python shell in python.el. (disclaimer: I am the author)

maya.standalone.initialize() hangs forever

Steps to repeat:
gfixler#gigabox:/autodesk/maya2012-x64/bin$ ./mayapy
Python 2.6.4 (r264:75706, Nov 3 2009, 14:09:42)
[GCC 4.1.2 20070626 (Red Hat 4.1.2-14)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import maya.standalone
>>> maya.standalone.initialize() # this hangs until I ^C
^CResult: untitled
Fatal Error. Attempting to save in /usr/tmp/gfixler.20120908.1953.ma
gfixler#gigabox:/autodesk/maya2012-x64/bin$
I think it's a library path issue of some sort, but I don't know how to find out.

I figured out the issue.
In trying to solve this I learned about python -m trace --trace script.py, and also a bit about pdb, a Python debugger. I tied these together by calling a trace on a file containing this:
pdb.run(maya.standalone.initialize(), globals(), locals())
I don't know if that was using either incorrectly, or overkill (trace alone was hanging after printing out a tremendous amount of information, which redirected into a file yielded nothing useful), but after hitting n (next) and s (step) followed by hundreds of enter keypresses in pdb got me nowhere, on a whim I typed help and got a help menu. I decided to try the listed EOF command, and it ran until it crashed with a message about being unable to load the commandPort. I remembered I set that value to autoload (Preferences window, Applications section) last week while fighting with nose, and apparently that was causing it to hang on a bad entry (":12345"), with absolutely no messages about anything. I opened UI Maya, deleted that preference, and now mayapy initializes fine. Phwew.

Why is Python 3.1.3 in the header listed as a syntax error?

I'm a newbie programmer so I'll do my best to clearly ask my question. I'm running Python scripts in Mac 10.6.5 and now trying to write and save to a text file (following instructions in HeadsUp Python book). Whenever I hit function+F5 (as instructed) I get the same "invalid syntax" error and Idle highlights the "1" in "Python 3.1.3" of the header. Here's the header to which I'm referring:
Python 3.1.3 (r313:86882M, Nov 30 2010, 09:55:56) [GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Inc. build 5494)] on darwin Type "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more information.
Extremely frustrating. I've checked and rechecked the code but this doesn't seem to be code related because the "syntax error" is in regards to the header text that posts in every Idle/Python session. Help anyone?

... and Idle highlights the "1" in "Python 3.1.3" of the header ...
Standalone Python scripts used to contain a "header", but that would be just
#!/usr/bin/env python
or, depending on the name of the interpreter maybe
#!/usr/bin/env python3.1
Not sure I understand your question, though.

you are writing your script in the wrong IDLE window ! when starting IDLE, it opens 2 windows: one for writing a script and another one with an interactive python shell. executing the content of the interactive python shell makes no sense.

#squashua: I have the same issue when I try to run the code either in IDLE or Ubuntu terminal.
Python 3.5.1 (v3.5.1:37a07cee5969, Dec 6 2015, 01:54:25)
it highlights "5" as syntax error.