{"id":341,"date":"2021-04-01T19:59:23","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T19:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/?p=341"},"modified":"2022-04-11T20:22:59","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T20:22:59","slug":"100-days-of-learning-day-24-wrapping-up-on-the-python-importing-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/100-days-challenge\/100-days-of-learning-day-24-wrapping-up-on-the-python-importing-process\/","title":{"rendered":"100 Days of Learning: Day 24 \u2013 Wrapping up on the Python importing process"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@writecodenow?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Boitumelo Phetla<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/s\/photos\/python?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-jetpack-markdown\"><p>Here is my <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/andrejacobs\/100DayChallenges\/blob\/main\/2021%20March\/100DaysOfLearning\/Week4\/Week4.md\">Log book<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Code for <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/andrejacobs\/100DayChallenges\/tree\/main\/2021%20March\/100DaysOfLearning\/Week4\/Day24\/project\">today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>A handy function<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/chrisyeh96.github.io\/2017\/08\/08\/definitive-guide-python-imports.html\">The Definitive Guide to Python import Statements<\/a> has a neat little bit of code that will show you all the modules that you can import. For my exploration I will wrap this into a function.<\/p>\n<p>Edit example.py and add the following function<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"language-python\">def all_available_modules(search_path = ['.']):\n    import pkgutil\n    all_modules = [x[1] for x in pkgutil.iter_modules(path=search_path)]\n    print('All available modules:')\n    print(all_modules)\n...\nif __name__ == '__main__':\n\t...\n\tall_available_modules()\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<pre><code class=\"language-bash\"># The file tree at the moment\nproject\n  \u251c\u2500\u2500 example.py\n  \u251c\u2500\u2500 module1.py\n  \u251c\u2500\u2500 package1\n  \u2502\u00a0\u00a0 \u251c\u2500\u2500 __init__.py\n  \u2502\u00a0\u00a0 \u2514\u2500\u2500 hello.py\n  \u2514\u2500\u2500 time.py\n\n# Run example.py\n$ python example.py\n...\nAll available modules:\n['example', 'module1', 'package1', 'time']\n\n# Modify the call to be this and then run it again:\nall_available_modules(None)\n\n...\nAll available modules:\n['example', 'module1', 'package1', 'time', '__future__', '_aix_support',\n '_bootlocale', '_bootsubprocess', '_collections_abc', '_compat_pickle',\n '_compression', '_markupbase', '_osx_support', '_py_abc', '_pydecimal',\n '_pyio', '_sitebuiltins', '_strptime', '_sysconfigdata__darwin_darwin',\n '_threading_local', '_weakrefset', 'abc', 'aifc', 'antigravity', 'argparse',\n 'ast', 'asynchat', 'asyncio', 'asyncore', 'base64', 'bdb', 'binhex',\n... # and the list goes on and on\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<h2>What is the difference between absolute and relative imports?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Absolute imports uses the full path from the project&#8217;s root directory to the module to be imported.\nFor example &quot;import package1.subpackage1.module1&quot; or &quot;from package1.subpackage1 import module1&quot;<\/li>\n<li>Relative imports uses the relative path from the current module to the module to be imported. Syntax is <code>from .module\/package import abc<\/code> Where each <code>.<\/code> represents a directory up the chain.\nFor example &quot;from ..abc import xyz&quot; would look for a module named &quot;abc&quot; in the parent directory of the current module.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Note that with a relative import you can only go up the chain to the directory containing the script but not including that directory. You will get <code>ImportError: attempted relative import beyond top-level package<\/code> if you try.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s explore this. I have created a new package2.subpackage2.subzero.py.<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"language-bash\">project\n  \u251c\u2500\u2500 example.py\n  \u251c\u2500\u2500 module1.py\n  \u251c\u2500\u2500 package1\n  \u2502\u00a0\u00a0 \u251c\u2500\u2500 __init__.py\n  \u2502\u00a0\u00a0 \u2514\u2500\u2500 hello.py\n  \u251c\u2500\u2500 package2\n  \u2502\u00a0\u00a0 \u2514\u2500\u2500 subpackage2\n  \u2502\u00a0\u00a0     \u2514\u2500\u2500 subzero.py\n  \u2514\u2500\u2500 time.py\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<pre><code class=\"language-python\"># hello.py (inside package1)\n# Added the following function\ndef say_hello(name):\n    print(f'Hello {name}!')\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<pre><code class=\"language-python\"># subzero.py\nimport sys\nprint(f'{__name__} sys.path: {sys.path}')\n\n# This will throw ImportError: attempted relative import beyond top-level package\n#from ...package1.hello import say_hello\n\nprint('subzero.py will import package1\/hello.py absolutely')\nfrom package1.hello import say_hello\n\nsay_hello('subzero')\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<pre><code class=\"language-bash\">$ python example.py\nsubzero.py will import package1\/hello.py absolutely\nHello subzero!\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>So package2.subpackage2.subzero is able to use an absolute import to import the function say_hello from package1.hello. This is because the <code>sys.path[0]<\/code> is set to the directory that contains the script being run, which in this case is project.<\/p>\n<p>If you try to do a relative import by walking up the directory tree using &#8230;, then you will get the ImportError mentioned earlier.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key points:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Absolute imports is preferred over relative imports.<\/li>\n<li>It is better to only import what you need. E.g. <code>from abc import x, y, z<\/code> . It also makes it clear to other people where things came from.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Wrapping up<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/chrisyeh96.github.io\/2017\/08\/08\/definitive-guide-python-imports.html\">The Definitive Guide to Python import Statements<\/a> has a very good example under &quot;Case 2&quot; of where you run different modules as scripts and thus <code>sys.path<\/code> will change and you will run into issues. I have personally hit this issue a couple of times now and after my learning the past 3 days I now understand why this fails.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/realpython.com\/python-modules-packages\/\">RealPython.com<\/a> has a really good tutorial about the different ways of importing. Well worth the read. There is also this more <a href=\"https:\/\/realpython.com\/python-import\/\">advanced tutorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>How do check if a module has been imported or not? <a href=\"https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/30483246\/how-to-check-if-a-python-module-has-been-imported\">SO post<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo by Boitumelo Phetla on Unsplash [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/andrejacobs.org\/100-days-challenge\/100-days-of-learning-day-24-wrapping-up-on-the-python-importing-process\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[23],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>100 Days of Learning: Day 24 \u2013 Wrapping up on the Python importing process - Andr\u00e9 Jacobs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Day 24 of 100 complete. 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