'Import a file from a subdirectory?
I have a file called tester.py, located on /project.
/project has a subdirectory called lib, with a file called BoxTime.py:
/project/tester.py
/project/lib/BoxTime.py
I want to import BoxTime from tester. I have tried this:
import lib.BoxTime
Which resulted:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./tester.py", line 3, in <module>
import lib.BoxTime
ImportError: No module named lib.BoxTime
Any ideas how to import BoxTime from the subdirectory?
EDIT
The __init__.py was the problem, but don't forget to refer to BoxTime as lib.BoxTime, or use:
import lib.BoxTime as BT
...
BT.bt_function()
Solution 1:[1]
Take a look at the Packages documentation (Section 6.4).
In short, you need to put a blank file named
__init__.py
in the lib directory.
Solution 2:[2]
- Create a subdirectory named
lib. - Create an empty file named
lib\__init__.py. In
lib\BoxTime.py, write a functionfoo()like this:def foo(): print "foo!"In your client code in the directory above
lib, write:from lib import BoxTime BoxTime.foo()Run your client code. You will get:
foo!
Much later -- in linux, it would look like this:
% cd ~/tmp
% mkdir lib
% touch lib/__init__.py
% cat > lib/BoxTime.py << EOF
heredoc> def foo():
heredoc> print "foo!"
heredoc> EOF
% tree lib
lib
??? BoxTime.py
??? __init__.py
0 directories, 2 files
% python
Python 2.7.6 (default, Mar 22 2014, 22:59:56)
[GCC 4.8.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from lib import BoxTime
>>> BoxTime.foo()
foo!
Solution 3:[3]
You can try inserting it in sys.path:
sys.path.insert(0, './lib')
import BoxTime
Solution 4:[4]
I am writing this down because everyone seems to suggest that you have to create a lib directory.
You don't need to name your sub-directory lib. You can name it anything provided you put an __init__.py into it.
You can do that by entering the following command in a linux shell:
$ touch anything/__init__.py
So now you have this structure:
$ ls anything/
__init__.py
mylib.py
$ ls
main.py
Then you can import mylib into main.py like this:
from anything import mylib
mylib.myfun()
You can also import functions and classes like this:
from anything.mylib import MyClass
from anything.mylib import myfun
instance = MyClass()
result = myfun()
Any variable function or class you place inside __init__.py can also be accessed:
import anything
print(anything.myvar)
Or like this:
from anything import myvar
print(myvar)
Solution 5:[5]
Try import .lib.BoxTime. For more information read about relative import in PEP 328.
Solution 6:[6]
Does your lib directory contain a __init__.py file?
Python uses __init__.py to determine if a directory is a module.
Solution 7:[7]
Full example included
This basically covers all cases (make sure you have __init__.py in relative/path/to/your/lib/folder):
import sys, os
sys.path.append(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)) + "/relative/path/to/your/lib/folder")
import someFileNameWhichIsInTheFolder
...
somefile.foo()
Example:
You have in your project folder:
/root/myproject/app.py
You have in another project folder:
/root/anotherproject/utils.py
/root/anotherproject/__init__.py
You want to use /root/anotherproject/utils.py and call foo function which is in it.
So you write in app.py:
import sys, os
sys.path.append(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)) + "/../anotherproject")
import utils
utils.foo()
Solution 8:[8]
Create an empty file __init__.py in subdirectory /lib.
And add at the begin of main code
from __future__ import absolute_import
then
import lib.BoxTime as BT
...
BT.bt_function()
or better
from lib.BoxTime import bt_function
...
bt_function()
Solution 9:[9]
Just an addition to these answers.
If you want to import all files from all subdirectories, you can add this to the root of your file.
import sys, os
sys.path.extend([f'./{name}' for name in os.listdir(".") if os.path.isdir(name)])
And then you can simply import files from the subdirectories just as if these files are inside the current directory.
Working example
If I have the following directory with subdirectories in my project...
.
??? a.py
??? b.py
??? c.py
??? subdirectory_a
? ??? d.py
? ??? e.py
??? subdirectory_b
? ??? f.py
??? subdirectory_c
? ??? g.py
??? subdirectory_d
??? h.py
I can put the following code inside my a.py file
import sys, os
sys.path.extend([f'./{name}' for name in os.listdir(".") if os.path.isdir(name)])
# And then you can import files just as if these files are inside the current directory
import b
import c
import d
import e
import f
import g
import h
In other words, this code will abstract from which directory the file is coming from.
Solution 10:[10]
For this folder hierarchy diagram example:
/project/tester.py
/project/lib/BoxTime.py
1- Create a blank py file __init__.py inside lib folder
2- In the caller py file tester.py add theses code lines
import os, sys
sys.path.insert(0,'lib')# insert the folder lib in system path
from BoxTime import Function_name # from the py file import the needed function
Easy explanation can be found in here.
Notice: This is refered to as creating/importing modules in/from different folder.
Personel experience: I tried to create module from jupyter notebook, it did not not work (maybe I done it improperly using .ipynb), I needed to do it manually outside the juypyter notebook, or using other IDE (e.g. pycharm).
Solution 11:[11]
/project/tester.py
/project/lib/BoxTime.py
create blank file __init__.py down the line till you reach the file
/project/lib/somefolder/BoxTime.py
#lib -- needs has two items one __init__.py and a directory named somefolder
#somefolder has two items boxtime.py and __init__.py
Solution 12:[12]
try this:
from lib import BoxTime
Sources
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Source: Stack Overflow