[Tutor] Question on "import foobar" vs "from foobar import *"

[spir]

Lie Ryan dixit:

> only use "from module import *" if the 
> module was designed for such use 

In most cases, this translates to: the imported module defines __names__, which holds the list of names (of the objects) to be exported. Check it.
Below, a,b,c,f,g,X,Y are defined, but only c,g,Y are exported. This means "from mod import *" will only import these names. Without __names__ defined, it would import all.

### module mod.py ###

__names__ = ['c','g','Y']

a = ...
b = ...
c = ...

def f():
    ...
def g():
    ...

class X(object):
    ...
class Y(object):
    ...


Denis
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