How do I reload a module in the Python console?

Question

I'm using PyCharm with Python 3.7. In my Python console, how do I reload a module that I've changed? I created a file, "services.py" where I created a service class in

class ArticlesService:
    def process(self):

As I test this in the console, I can't seem to figure out how to reload it. This is the error I get

from mainpage.services import ArticlesService
importlib.reload(ArticlesService)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<input>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/importlib/__init__.py", line 140, in reload
    raise TypeError("reload() argument must be a module")
TypeError: reload() argument must be a module

How do I refer to my class to reload it? (Or better yet, how do I get the console to automatically reload everything I've changed?)

Answer 1

from mainpage.services import ArticlesService only imports the class into your namespace, so you have no reference to the module in the namespace. From the importlib.reload docs:

Reload a previously imported module . The argument must be a module object, so it must have been successfully imported before.

So make sure to import the module if you want to reload later:

import importlib
import mainpage
from mainpage.services import ArticlesService

...

importlib.reload(mainpage)

This should work as well:

import importlib
import mainpage.services
from mainpage.services import ArticlesService

...

importlib.reload(mainpage.services)