How do I fix invalid syntax error when importing postgis in Python 2.7?

Question

I'm new to python and I am trying to transfer data in a PostgreSQL database with the postgis extension. My code is written in Python 2.7 and I am using the PyCharm IDE.

When I am trying to import the postgis module:

import postgis

I get an 'invalid syntax' error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/home/.../PycharmProjects/HDFtoPostgres/SendToPSQL.py", line 1,    in <module>
    import postgis
  File "/home/.../PycharmProjects/HDFtoPostgres/venv2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/postgis/__init__.py", line 2, in <module>
    from .geometry import Geometry
  File "/home/.../PycharmProjects/HDFtoPostgres/venv2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/postgis/geometry.py", line 14
    class Geometry(object, metaclass=Typed):
                                    ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

To me it looks like the geometry.py is written in Python 3.x but is interpreted as Python 2.7 and thus crashes at this point. Any ideas on how to solve this?

Answer 1

It would appear that the postgis package shouldn't really install in Python 2 environments, since its page on PyPI suggests it's only approved for Python 3.5 and 3.6.

There isn't really an easy way around this other than to migrate your code to Python 3 if postgis is an essential component. Alternatively you might try backporting postgis to Python 2.7, but that's an exercise of unknown complexity.