Question

Is there a way to open a second python console and let the new console run while the original console keeps going and when the new console finishes it sends back its data, in the form of a variable back to the original console?

Answer 1

The sub-process module might be what you are looking for. However, the thing is, you get the output of the process after the entire program finishes. this means, if the program you are trying to run runs forever you will not be able to see the output until it is quit (either by forcing it or using termination methods).

An example of how you would assign the output to a variable would be:

output,error=your_process.communicate()

The output part of this is what you would be using (based on your question). However, the error is what you get if you run it and there is a problem (doesn’t return 0). If you are not looking to capture errors then you can simply assign it to _.

Also note that if you are using key-word arguments, i would suggest using the shlex library for splitting your string into arguments. (you can just use a regular string such as: var="mypythonprogram.py argument1 argument2" and use arguments=shlex.split(var) and you can then just supply it into the arguments for the sub-process.

Another option if you don’t need to interact with the program would be using Threads, and there are many questions on stack overflow about them, as well as plenty of documentation both officially, and on other websites all over the internet.