Importing Utils in Python

Question

I have Python 3.9.7 and I have already installed utils==1.0.1.

So now I want to import this library and trying with this command

from . import utils

But this is not working. I receive this error :

ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package

So can anybody help me how to solve this problem ?

Answer 1

Trying to import from a folder that is not recognised as a python package (it must have an _init_.py file to be recognised as a package) can raise this error.

If utils is a package try importing it directly like from utils import * or import utils

Answer 2

I think there is some confusion around utils. I think you installed a Python package via pip, i.e. pip install python-utils. If that is the case, then you need:

import python_utils

Also you should check out their quickstart for that package.

There are many reasons not to use the . methodology, but the main one here is you're not actually accessing a parent folder, you're accessing a site package that you've installed. These will always be import X.

e.g.:

pip install numpy

import numpy

And if you're curious run pip show <package> to know where it is installed. It should be under site-packages.

Answer 3

import utils

Dont use this:

from . import *anything*

In file hierarchy . means current directory and python tries to find from {file} this file in the same level, where you launched your code. You should also read info about ../ file hierarchy in unix systems to understand how python works with files.