refactoring a group of import statements

[Thomas Jollans]

On 06/28/2010 12:06 AM, GrayShark wrote:
> I have a large list of package files to import. I'm using a try/except 
> test to verify the import. Looks like:
> 
> try:
> 	import abc
> except ImportError:
> 	print( "Error importing abc" )
> 
> I've got many of those segments. I want to try and refactor this part 
> of the code. 
> 
> Trying:
> 	for mod in ['ab', 'cd', 'ef' ]:
> 		try:
> 			mod = __import__( mod )
> 		except ImportError:
> 			print( "Error importing %" % mod )
> 
> This of course doesn't work. The module ab get's assign in the application
> as mod. 
> 
> Tried:
> 	for mod in ['ab', 'cd', 'ef' ]:
> 		('%s' % mod ) = __import__( mod )
> 
> Still no joy.
> 
> I need a way to deference the the string in mod to be just a variable.
> 
> Any suggestions?

(1) Don't. If you need the module, there's no reason to check for
exceptions. Just let the ImportError propagate. Okay, maybe you don't
actually need the module - then why do you have to import it in the
first place?

(2) globals()[mod] = __import__(mod)

(3) Why not

try:
    import x
    import y
    import z
except ImportError as exc:
    display_error_properly(exc)
    raise exc


-- Thomas