except:

try:

from lxml import etree

except:

from xml.etree import ElementTree as etree

It would all be:

import xml.etree.cElementTree or lxml.etree or xml.etree.ElementTree as etree

On Thu, Dec 26, 2013 at 10:36 PM, Amber Yust <amber.yust@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu Dec 26 2013 at 7:40:19 PM, Bruce Leban <bruce@leapyear.org> wrote:

I think you mean do the import if the name is unbound or bound to None. Otherwise, it doesn't work in the example you gave.

Yes, that is what I meant, sorry. Another option would be "not bound to something that is not a module" - but I think "unbound or None" is probably the most versatile option.

On Thu Dec 26 2013 at 8:08:45 PM, Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> wrote:
I'm not (yet) convinced of the need for this functionality, but if
Python did gain this, I think I would prefer the colour of this
bike-shed to be "perhaps import" rather than "maybe import".

Another option would be to re-use the 'or' keyword:

from foo import bar or None

Where the bit after the 'or' simply specifies a default value to assign if an ImportError occurs.

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Ryan

When your hammer is C++, everything begins to look like a thumb.