Relative Imports, why the hell is it so hard?

CinnamonDonkey CinnamonDonkey at googlemail.com
Mon Mar 23 11:22:21 EDT 2009


Hi Guys,

Thanx for the quick responses, it is very much appreciated!

Skip, that's a good point about "C++ != Python" and I assure you I am
very much aware of that ;-).

Looking at http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0328/#guido-s-decision
would suggest, unless I am completely miss-understanding the example,
that '.' refers to the current level and '..' pops up a level. First
three uses:

  # Access moduleY in same level as ModuleX
  from .moduleY import spam
  from .moduleY import spam as ham
  from . import moduleY


Just to be sure though I tried both ;):

 from ..subpack2 import module1 #ValueError: Attempted relative import
beyond toplevel package
 from .subpack2 import module1 #ImportError: No module named subpack2
 from . import subpack2 #ImportError: cannot import name subpack2
 from .. import subpack2 #ValueError: Attempted relative import beyond
toplevel package


Max, thank you for the response... I tried adding "from __future__
import absolute_import" which made no difference. I still get exactly
the same error messages. Perhaps I should have mentioned that I am
using Python 2.5, which I understand alread supports relative imports
out of the box. I'll keep this line in for now anyway though :-)
Cheers!

#subpack1.module1
from __future__ import absolute_import

from .. import subpack2

def subpack1_module1_foo():
    print "subpack1_module1_foo()"
    call_subpack2_module1()

def call_subpack2_module1():
    subpack2.module2.subpack2_module2_foo()


#subpack2.module2
def subpack2_module2_foo():
    print "subpack2_module2_foo()"

#main.py
import subpack1.module1

if __name__ == "__main__":
    subpack1.module1.subpack1_module1_foo()



I am starting the sandbox app with the command line: python main.py
with the current working directory in \app where main.py is located.

Shaun >8)




On 23 Mar, 14:44, s... at pobox.com wrote:
>     >> Please, please... please! don't go off on rants about why you think
>     >> relative imports should not be used. I've got 15+ years in C++ and
>     >> relative inclusion of other sections of code has never been a
>     >> problem.  As far as I am concerned what I am trying to do is
>     >> perfectly reasonable and valid.
>
> However, C++ != Python.  Regardless whether or not you can "make it work",
> translating idioms from one language to another is often suboptimal.  That
> may not be the case here, but it bears keeping in mind.
>
>     >> Example:
>
>     >> \ App
>     >> |   main.py
>     >> +--\subpack1
>     >> |   |   __init__.py
>     >> |   |   module1.py
>     >> |
>     >> +--\subpack2
>     >> |   |   __init__.py
>     >> |   |   module2.py
>
>     >> Module1 needs to access functionality in Module2.
>
>     >> #module1.py
>     >> from ..subpack2 import module2
>
>     >> Seems reasonable to me... but it just does not work and I was so
>     >> liking Python. :(
>
> You might try removing a dot from your import statement.  Python is also not
> Unix.  Popping up one level in the package hierarchy is done with ".", not
> "..".
>
> --
> Skip Montanaro - s... at pobox.com -http://www.smontanaro.net/




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