Importing files in Python 3.4

Question

I'm having trouble importing my own Python file. My file structure looks as such:

caboose2\
    __init__.py
    caboose.py
    bot\
        __init__.py
        settings.py
        config.ini

In the settings.py file there is a method, get_config() that uses configparser to parse the config.ini file to gather values for settings that are stored in a dict.

The contents of caboose.py are simple:

import bot
settings = bot.settings.get_config()

bot\\\\__init__.py contains:

import settings

And settings.py just contains the method get_config() . The method works fine; it was originally in the caboose.py file, but for cleanliness, I wanted to move it to its own file.

However, when I run the caboose.py file, I get this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "caboose.py", line 2, in <module>
  import bot
File "D:\Brogramming\python\caboose2\bot\__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
  import settings
ImportError: No module named 'settings'

I'm sure there's some fundamental part of importing modules/files in Python that I'm not understanding, and I've decided to ask for help. Thank you for your time and any possible answers!

Answer 1

You are facing the issue because your first item sys.path still remains at caboose2\\ directory when the bot's __init__.py is run.

__init__.py is used for doing initialization logic for the module, you do not need to import settings.py into your __init__.py file.

Leave the __init__.py file empty and do the following in your caboose.py -

import bot.settings
settings = bot.settings.get_config()

If you really need to import settings.py in your __init__.py file, try -

from bot import settings

Answer 2

EDITED First read this - https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/modules.html#packages

The __init__.py files are required to make Python treat the directories as containing packages; this is done to prevent directories with a common name, such as string, from unintentionally hiding valid modules that occur later on the module search path. In the simplest case, __init__.py can just be an empty file, but it can also execute initialization code for the package or set the __all__ variable, described later.

There are 2 options -

Eeither use the module export

If you wish to use the __init__.py then do this -

• First add and __all__ to export the method from package -

File: __init__.py :

from settings import get_config
__all__ = ['get_config']

File: caboose.py :

from bot import get_config
settings = get_config()

OR Ignore the __init__.py completely and remove everything from inside it. Then the code in caboose.py will work automatically.

File: caboose.py :

import bot.settings
settings = bot.settings.get_config()