Nameerror: name ‘__file__’ is not defined ( Solved )

NameError is an error that occurs when you are using a variable or function that is not defined in the code. The error Nameerror: name ‘file‘ is not defined is one of them. In this post you will learn how to solve the Nameerror: name ‘file’ is not defined error.

What is NameError?

NameError is an error that is raised when you are trying to call a variable or function that is not defined. Suppose you are getting the error Nameerror: name ‘X‘ is not defined then the python interpreter is telling that you will use the variable X or function before defining in the code or without importing the module if you are using the module class or function.

Why Nameerror: name ‘file’ is not defined Error comes?

The NameError: name ‘file’ is not defined occurs when you try to access the file variable, in the code. The file is is used to retrieve the path of the current file, but it is not defined in the current context.

Most of the case the error occurs when you try to run Python code from an interactive shell or when the code is being executed indirectly, such as in a module or script. The file variable is only defined when the code is run directly as the main module.

You will get the error when you run the below lines of code in the interactive shell.

>>>import os
>>>os.path.dirname(__file__)

Nameerror: name '__file__' is not defined

The solution of name ‘file’ is not defined

Solution 1: Use the proper way to access the path

If you are trying to get access to the path then use the os.path.abspath(‘file’). This way you will not get the error.

import os

os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath('__file__'))

Solution 2: Use your code in the Python module

The other solution is that you should run the code using the python module instead of the interactive shell. For this just create a main.py python file and use the below lines of code.

import os

path= os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__))

print(path)

Now go to the shell and type python main.py to run the code you will not get the error.

python main.py

Conclusion

In most of the cases Nameerror: name ‘file‘ is not defined error comes when you try to access the path of the directory in the interactive shell. The above solutions will resolve all the issues you faced while getting the path of the directory.