Why does “Nameerror: Name ‘__File__’ Is Not Defined Occur?

Below, are the reasons that’s why “Nameerror: Name ‘__File__’ Is Not Defined occurs.

• Using __file__ in Module-Level
• Running as Compiled Module
• Typos Mistake

Using __file__ in Module-Level

If you are using __file__ at the module level (not within a function or class) and running the script directly, it should work. However, if you import that script as a module elsewhere, the __file__ attribute may not be defined in the context of the importing script.

      1 def print_file_path():
----> 2   print(__file__)
      3 
      4 print_file_path()

NameError: name '__file__' is not defined

Running as Compiled Module

If your script is compiled or frozen into a standalone executable, the __file__ attribute might not be available or might not represent the original script file.

Above scenarios may cause the “Nameerror: Name’__file__’ is not defined ” in Python.

Typos Mistake

In below example, the code print(__File__) will raise a NameError because the correct attribute name is __file__, not __File__. In Python, attribute names are case-sensitive, meaning that the capitalization of letters matters.

----> 1 print(__File__)
      2 

NameError: name '__File__' is not defined

One common issue that developers encounter is the “NameError: name ‘file‘ is not defined.” This error typically occurs when trying to access the __file__ attribute in a context where it is not recognized. In this article, we’ll explore what this error means and discuss three scenarios where it might occur

What is Nameerror?

The __file__ attribute is a built-in variable in Python that represents the path to the current Python script or module. It is used to obtain the location of the script being executed. The “NameError: name ‘file‘ is not defined” error occurs when attempting to access this attribute in a context where it is not recognized or not available.

Syntax :

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<filename>", line <line_number>, in <module>
    print(__File__)
NameError: name '__File__' is not defined