Invoking the Interpreter Interactive Mode

When you type Python directly on the command line, after the command is read by the terminal (TTY), after entering its prompt, the interpreter first prints a welcome message (Welcome message) explaining (stating) its version number and copyright information, Then print out the interpreter's prompt, then the Python interpreter is in interactive mode. In this mode, it prompts for a prompt to type the next command, typically using three greater than sign (three Greater-than signs) ">>>". If you need to continue (continuation) input from the second line, the second line of the prompt will default to three dots "...".

Pythonpython 2.7 (#1, Feb, 00:02:06) Type ' help ', ' copyright ', ' credits ' or ' license ' for more information.>> >

The continuation line (continuation lines) is useful in certain situations, such as when you want to enter a block structure with multiple lines of code. As the following example, we enter an "if" statement block:

>>> The_world_is_flat = 1>>> if The_world_is_flat: ... print "Be careful not to fall off!" ... Be careful not to fall off!

Invoking the Interpreter Interactive Mode