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How to let user enter Python code as if they're running 'python' from terminal?

When you run "python" in your terminal, you get a running instance of python where you can run python code.
I want to do this, but after my script has run a few functions first.
But what I want is this type of interface at the end of my script.
I.e. I want to run my_script.py, in "main" call a few functions, but then after those functions, keep the "workspace" open with the >>> interface so that the user can run more python code.
if __name__ == "__main__":
excel_file = sys.argv[1]
my_list = load_file(excel_file)
#... do a bunch of other things
# open python interface now >>>
while True:
# accept user python commands like in the terminal example above
Is there any way to do this?

You could run your script in interactive mode so that when it would normally exit, you instead drop into an interactive Python interpreter:
python -i my_script.py
You could also enter interactive mode from the script file without the command line flag using the Python code module like in this example:
import code
if __name__ == "__main__":
# Do something.
code.interact(local = locals())
Alternatively, you could use something like the exec keyword in a loop to execute arbitrary commands and kind of "fake it" with something like this:
if __name__ == "__main__":
# Do something.
try:
while True:
exec(input(">>> "))
except KeyboardInterrupt:
sys.exit()
Though this approach is a lot less clean than using interactive mode, especially for executing multi-line code.

If I understand you correctly, you want to load files into variables and play around with those variables.
I think the better option, instead of your proposed makeshift workspace, is to use a Jupyter notebook.
This video gives a good introduction on how the workflow looks like to read an Excel file and play around with it.

My mac terminal can't run python functions

I've tried to run multiple python functions on mac terminal and they all return syntax error, for this program
def spam():
print "R"
spam()
it returned the error:
./test.py: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token `('
./test.py: line 1: `def spam():'
this is really the simplest function I could find.
Just to be clear terminal is running the rest of the program but it can't handle functions.
#!/usr/bin/python
import math
number = int(raw_input("What's your surd?"))
print type(number)
#Just to let us know what the input is
if type(number) == int:
print "Number is an integer"
else:
print "Please enter a number"
value = math.sqrt(number)
#Takes the number and square roots it
new_value = int(value)
#Turns square root of number into an integer
if type(new_value) == int:
print "Surd can be simplified"
print new_value
else:
print "Surd cannot be simplified"
print value
This program runs fine even if it is a bit buggy at the moment but the following program returns the same error as the previous function.
# define a function
def print_factors(x):
print("The factors of",x,"are:")
for i in range(1, x + 1):
if x % i == 0:
print(i)
num = int(input("What's your number? "))
print_factors(num)
Why terminal is returning a syntax error where there isn't one?

The problem here (at least for that first example) is that you're not using a python interpreter. The terminal is using a bash interpreter for your python code and getting very confused. Use a command like this to execute your code python spam.py . Or first enter the python command interpreter by running python, then entering your code in the command line interpreter.
What might be even easier while getting started is to get an IDE like PyCharm (https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/) and running through a couple of their tutorials to get the feel of it.

Your issue is that your shell doesn't know you are running a Python script. You need to make it clear that you should be using the Python interpreter. You can either do this by:
1) Call python test.py at your terminal.
2) Add #!/usr/bin/python at the top of your Python script (you may need to alter the path to the Python executable on your system). Make the script executable, and call ./test.py at your terminal.
The benefits of 2) are that you know what version of Python you will be running your script with (Python 2.x in your case?).
Method 1) will use whatever Python version is encountered first in your PATH, which may be Python 3 or Python 2, depending on whether you have installed Python 3 at some point. The code you have written will work with Python 2.7, but not Python 3.x. Of course you can always explicitly call python2.7 ./test.py.

How to stop command prompt from closing in python?

I am very new to python.. I used the code
x = input(" Hey what is your name " )
print(" Hey, " + x)
input(" press close to exit ")
Because i have looked for this problem on internet and came to know that you have to put some dummy input line at the end to stop the command prompt from getting closed but m still facing the problem.. pls Help
I am using python 3.3

On windows, it's the CMD console that closes, because the Python process exists at the end.
To prevent this, open the console first, then use the command line to run your script. Do this by right-clicking on the folder that contains the script, select Open console here and typing in python scriptname.py in the console.
The alternative is, as you've found out, to postpone the script ending by adding a input() call at the end. This allows the user of the script to choose when the script ends and the console closes.

That can be done with os module. Following is the simple code :
import os
os.system("pause")
This will generate a pause and will ask user to press any key to continue.
[edit: The above method works well for windows os. It seems to give problem with mac (as pointed by ihue, in comments). The thing is that "os" library is operating system specific and some commands might not work with one operating system like they work in another one.]

For Windows Environments:
If you don't want to go to the command prompt (or work in an environment where command prompt is restricted), I think the following solution is gooThe solution I use is to create a bat file.
Use notepad to create a text file. In the file the contents will look something like:
my_python_program.py
pause
Then save the file as "my_python_program.bat" - DO NOT FORGET TO SELECT "All Files!
When you run the bat file it will run the python program and pause at the end to allow you to read the output. Then if you press any key it will close the window.

Just Add Simple input At The End Of Your Program it Worked For Me
input()
Try it And It Will Work Correctly

Try this,
import sys
status='idlelib' in sys.modules
# Put this segment at the end of code
if status==False:
input()
This will only stop console window, not the IDLE.

How to determine if Python script was run via command line?

Background
I would like my Python script to pause before exiting using something similar to:
raw_input("Press enter to close.")
but only if it is NOT run via command line. Command line programs shouldn't behave this way.
Question
Is there a way to determine if my Python script was invoked from the command line:
$ python myscript.py
verses double-clicking myscript.py to open it with the default interpreter in the OS?

If you're running it without a terminal, as when you click on "Run" in Nautilus, you can just check if it's attached to a tty:
import sys
if sys.stdin and sys.stdin.isatty():
# running interactively
print("running interactively")
else:
with open('output','w') as f:
f.write("running in the background!\n")
But, as ThomasK points out, you seem to be referring to running it in a terminal that closes just after the program finishes. I think there's no way to do what you want without a workaround; the program is running in a regular shell and attached to a terminal. The decision of exiting immediately is done just after it finishes with information it doesn't have readily available (the parameters passed to the executing shell or terminal).
You could go about examining the parent process information and detecting differences between the two kinds of invocations, but it's probably not worth it in most cases. Have you considered adding a command line parameter to your script (think --interactive)?

What I wanted was answered here: Determine if the program is called from a script in Python
You can just determine between "python" and "bash". This was already answered I think, but you can keep it short as well.
#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import psutil
import os
ppid = os.getppid() # Get parent process id
print(psutil.Process(ppid).name())

I don't think there's any reliable way to detect this (especially in a cross-platform manner). For example on OS X, when you double-click a .py file and it tuns with "Python Launcher", it runs in a terminal, identically to if you execute it manually.
Although it may have other issues, you could package the script up with something like py2exe or Platypus, then you can have the double-clickable icon run a specific bit of code to differentiate (import mycode; mycode.main(gui = True) for example)

If you run python IDLE then "pythonw.exe" is being used to run coding while when you run the command line "python.exe" is used to run coding. The python folder path can vary so you have to revert the path to the python folder. m = '\\' and m = m[0] is to get m to be '\' because of escaping.
import sys
a = sys.executable
m = '\\'
m = m[0]
while True:
b = len(a)
c = a[(b - 1)]
if c == m:
break
a = a[:(b - 1)]
if sys.executable == a + 'pythonw.exe':
print('Running in Python IDLE')
else:
print('Running in Command line')

Update for later versions (e.g. Python 3.6 on Ubuntu 16.04): The statement to get the name has changed to psutil.Process(os.getpid()).parent().name()
I believe this CAN be done. At least, here is how I got it working in Python 2.7 under Ubuntu 14.04:
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os, psutil
# do stuff here
if psutil.Process(os.getpid()).parent.name == 'gnome-terminal':
raw_input("Press enter to close...")
Note that -- in Ubuntu 14 with the Gnome desktop (aka Nautilus) -- you might need to do this:
from a Nautilus window (the file browser), select Edit(menu)->Preferences(item) then Behavior(tab)->Executable Text Files(section)->Ask Each Time(radio).
chmod your script to be executable, or -- from a Nautilus window (the file browser) -- right click on the file->Properties(item) then Permissions(tab)->Execute:Allow executing file as program(checkbox)
double-click your file. If you select "Run in Terminal", you should see the "Type enter to close..." prompt.
now try from a bash prompt; you should NOT see the prompt.
To see how this works, you can fiddle with this (based on the answer by from #EduardoIvanec):
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys
import psutil
def parent_list(proc=None, indent=0):
if not proc:
proc = psutil.Process(os.getpid())
pid = proc.pid
name = proc.name
pad = " " * indent
s = "{0}{1:5d} {2:s}".format(pad, pid, name)
parent = proc.parent
if parent:
s += "\n" + parent_list(parent, indent+1)
return s
def invoked_from_bash_cmdline():
return psutil.Process(os.getpid()).parent.name == "bash"
def invoked_as_run_in_terminal():
return psutil.Process(os.getpid()).parent.name == "gnome-terminal"
def invoked_as_run():
return psutil.Process(os.getpid()).parent.name == "init"
if sys.stdin.isatty():
print "running interactively"
print parent_list()
if invoked_as_run_in_terminal():
raw_input("Type enter to close...")
else:
with open('output','w') as f:
f.write("running in the background!\n")
f.write("parent list:\n")
f.write(parent_list())

From the idea behind this answer, adding for Win10 compatibility (Ripped from Python 2.7 script; modify as needed):
import os, psutil
status = 1
if __name__ =="__main__":
status = MainFunc(args)
args = sys.argv
running_windowed = False
running_from = psutil.Process(os.getpid()).parent().name()
if running_from == 'explorer.exe':
args.append([DEFAULT OR DOUBLE CLICK ARGS HERE])
running_windowed = True
if running_windowed:
print('Completed. Exit status of {}'.format(status))
ready = raw_input('Press Enter To Close')
sys.exit(status)
There is a number of switch like statements you could add to be more universal or handle different defaults.

This is typically done manually/, I don't think there is an automatic way to do it that works for every case.
You should add a --pause argument to your script that does the prompt for a key at the end.
When the script is invoked from a command line by hand, then the user can add --pause if desired, but by default there won't be any wait.
When the script is launched from an icon, the arguments in the icon should include the --pause, so that there is a wait. Unfortunately you will need to either document the use of this option so that the user knows that it needs to be added when creating an icon, or else, provide an icon creation function in your script that works for your target OS.

My solution was to create command line scripts using setuptools. Here are a the relevant parts of myScript.py:
def main(pause_on_error=False):
if run():
print("we're good!")
else:
print("an error occurred!")
if pause_on_error:
raw_input("\nPress Enter to close.")
sys.exit(1)
def run():
pass # run the program here
return False # or True if program runs successfully
if __name__ == '__main__':
main(pause_on_error=True)
And the relevant parts of setup.py:
setup(
entry_points={
'console_scripts': [
'myScript = main:main',
]
},
)
Now if I open myScript.py with the Python interpreter (on Windows), the console window waits for the user to press enter if an error occurs. On the command line, if I run 'myScript', the program will never wait for user input before closing.

Although this isn't a very good solution, it does work (in windows at least).
You could create a batch file with the following contents:
#echo off
for %%x in (%cmdcmdline%) do if /i "%%~x"=="/c" set DOUBLECLICKED=1
start <location of python script>
if defined DOUBLECLICKED pause
If you want to be able to do this with a single file, you could try the following:
#echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set LF=^
:: The 2 empty lines are necessary
for %%x in (%cmdcmdline%) do if /i "%%~x"=="/c" set DOUBLECLICKED=1
echo print("first line of python script") %LF% print("second and so on") > %temp%/pyscript.py
start /wait console_title pyscript.py
del %temp%/pyscript.py
if defined DOUBLECLICKED pause
Batch code from: Pausing a batch file when double-clicked but not when run from a console window?
Multi-line in batch from: DOS: Working with multi-line strings

Okay, the easiest way I found and made was to simply run the program in the command line, even if it was ran in the Python IDLE.
exist = lambda x: os.path.exists(x) ## Doesn't matter
if __name__ == '__main__':
fname = "SomeRandomFileName" ## Random default file name
if exist(fname)==False: ## exist() is a pre-defined lambda function
jot(fname) ## jot() is a function that creates a blank file
os.system('start YourProgram.py') ## << Insert your program name here
os.system('exit'); sys.exit() ## Exits current shell (Either IDLE or CMD)
os.system('color a') ## Makes it look cool! :p
main() ## Runs your code
os.system("del %s" % fname) ## Deletes file name for next time
Add this to the bottom of your script and once ran from either IDLE or Command Prompt, it will create a file, re-run the program in the CMD, and exits the first instance.
Hope that helps! :)

I also had that question and, for me, the best solution is to set an environment variable in my IDE (PyCharm) and check if that variable exists to know if the script is being executed either via the command line or via the IDE.
To set an environment variable in PyCharm check:
How to set environment variables in PyCharm?
Example code (environment variable: RUNNING_PYCHARM = True):
import os
# The script is being executed via the command line
if not("RUNNING_PYCHARM" in os.environ):
raw_input("Press enter to close.")
I hope it works for you.

Based on existing solutions and using sets:
import psutil
def running_interactively():
"""Return True if any of our parent processes is a known shell."""
shells = {"cmd.exe", "bash.exe", "powershell.exe", "WindowsTerminal.exe"}
parent_names = {parent.name() for parent in psutil.Process().parents()}
# print(parent_names)
# print(f"Shell in parents? {shells & parent_names}")
return bool(shells & parent_names)
if not running_interactively():
input("\nPress ENTER to continue.")

This answer is currently specific to Windows, but it can be reconfigured to work with other operating systems in theory. Rather than installing psutil module like most of these answers recommend, you can make use of the subprocess module and the Windows tasklist command to explicitly get the name of the parent process of your Python program.
import os
import subprocess
shells = {"bash.exe", "cmd.exe", "powershell.exe", "WindowsTerminal.exe"}
# These are standard examples, but it can also be used to detect:
# - Nested python.exe processes (IDLE, etc.)
# - IDEs used to develop your program (IPython, Eclipse, PyCharm, etc.)
# - Other operating system dependent shells
s = subprocess.check_output(["tasklist", "/v", "/fo", "csv", "/nh", "/fi", f"PID eq {os.getppid()}"])
# Execute tasklist command to get the verbose info without the header (/nh) of a single process in CSV format (/fo csv)
# Such that its PID is equal to os.getppid()
entry = s.decode("utf-8").strip().strip('"').split('","')
# Decode from bytes to str, remove end whitespace and quotations from CSV format
# And split along the quote delimited commas
# This process may differ and require adjustment when used for an OS other than Windows
condition = entry and entry[0] in shells
# Check first that entry is not an empty sequence, meaning the process has already ended
# If it still exists, check if the first element -- the executable -- exists as an element of the set of executables you're looking for
I hope this is helpful for anyone looking for an answer to this problem while minimizing the number of dependencies you'd need.
This was tested in Python 3.8 and uses an f-string in the subprocess.check_output line of the code, so please be sure to convert the f-string to a compatible syntax if you're working with a version of Python before f-strings were introduced.

How can I stop python.exe from closing immediately after I get an output? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How to keep a Python script output window open?
(27 answers)
Closed 8 years ago.
Is there any way I can stop python.exe from closing immediately after it completes? It closes faster than I can read the output.
Here is the program:
width = float(input("Enter the width: "))
height = float(input("Enter the height: "))
area = width * height
print("The area is", area, "square units.")

You can't - globally, i.e. for every python program. And this is a good thing - Python is great for scripting (automating stuff), and scripts should be able to run without any user interaction at all.
However, you can always ask for input at the end of your program, effectively keeping the program alive until you press return. Use input("prompt: ") in Python 3 (or raw_input("promt: ") in Python 2). Or get used to running your programs from the command line (i.e. python mine.py), the program will exit but its output remains visible.

Just declare a variable like k or m or any other you want, now just add this piece of code at the end of your program
k=input("press close to exit")
Here I just assumed k as variable to pause the program, you can use any variable you like.

For Windows Environments:
If you don't want to go to the command prompt (or work in an environment where command prompt is restricted), I think the following solution is better than inserting code into python that asks you to press any key - because if the program crashes before it reaches that point, the window closes and you lose the crash info. The solution I use is to create a bat file.
Use notepad to create a text file. In the file the contents will look something like:
my_python_program.py
pause
Then save the file as "my_python_program.bat"
When you run the bat file it will run the python program and pause at the end to allow you to read the output. Then if you press any key it will close the window.

Auxiliary answer
Manoj Govindan's answer is correct but I saw that comment:
Run it from the terminal.
And got to thinking about why this is so not obvious to windows users and realized it's because CMD.EXE is such a poor excuse for a shell that it should start with:
Windows command interpreter copyright 1999 Microsoft
Mein Gott!! Whatever you do, don't use this!!
C:>
Which leads me to point at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/913912/bash-shell-for-windows

It looks like you are running something in Windows by double clicking on it. This will execute the program in a new window and close the window when it terminates. No wonder you cannot read the output.
A better way to do this would be to switch to the command prompt. Navigate (cd) to the directory where the program is located and then call it using python. Something like this:
C:\> cd C:\my_programs\
C:\my_programs\> python area.py
Replace my_programs with the actual location of your program and area.py with the name of your python file.

Python files are executables, which means that you can run them directly from command prompt(assuming you have windows). You should be able to just enter in the directory, and then run the program.
Also, (assuming you have python 3), you can write:
input("Press enter to close program")
and you can just press enter when you've read your results.

In windows, if Python is installed into the default directory (For me it is):
cd C:\Python27
You then proceed to type
"python.exe "[FULLPATH]\[name].py"
to run your Python script in Command Prompt