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Sys Module


The sys module provides functions and variables used to manipulate different parts of the Python runtime environment. You will learn some of the important features of this module here.

sys.argv returns a list of command line arguments passed to a Python script. The item at index 0 in this list is always the name of the script. The rest of the arguments are stored at the subsequent indices. sys.argv Here is a Python script (test.py) consuming two arguments from the command line.

import sys
print("You entered: ",sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2], sys.argv[3])

`import sys

print(“You entered: “,sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2], sys.argv[3])` This script is executed from command line as follows:

Above, sys.argv[1] contains the first argument ‘Python’, sys.argv[2] contains the second argument ‘Python’, and sys.argv[3] contains the third argument ‘Java’.sys.argv[0] contains the script file name test.py. sys.argv[1]``sys.argv[2]``sys.argv[3]``sys.argv[0]``test.py

This causes the script to exit back to either the Python console or the command prompt. This is generally used to safely exit from the program in case of generation of an exception.

Returns the largest integer a variable can take.

import sys
print(sys.maxsize) #output: 9223372036854775807

`import sys

print(sys.maxsize) #output: 9223372036854775807`Try it

This is an environment variable that is a search path for all Python modules.

import sys
print(sys.path)

`import sys

print(sys.path)`Try it

This attribute displays a string containing the version number of the current Python interpreter.

import sys
print(sys.version)

`import sys

print(sys.version)`Try it Learn more about the sys module in Python docs. sys module in Python docs