What is the difference between .locals import * and import local

Question

I am writing a code for flappy bird and I was watching a tutorial on collision and they used:

from pygame.locals import *

Why don't they just use:

from pygame import local

What is the difference and how does it change the code? Does it import all of that library or just a specific bit. As I thought you would just use import pygame for that?

Answer 1

The first one imports everything from pygame.locals . You can then access elements of the pygame.locals without prefixing with the module name.

from pygame.locals import *
print(K_a)  # 97 = ascii code of 'a'

The second one imports the module locals from pygame. You can basically access the same things but now you have to use the module name as a prefix.

from pygame import locals
print(K_a)  # NameError: name 'K_a' is not defined
print(locals.K_a)  # 97 = ascii code of 'a'

The second form is preferable because then you do not have the risk of hiding definitions in pygame.locals as below:

from pygame.locals import *
K_a = 21  #  hide K_a from pygame.locals

Answer 2

Let's understand it by a example

I have Directory named myApp and inside it I have 2 files

~app.py ~helper.py

In helper.py my code is

abc1 = 'hi'
abc2 = 'bye

In app.py my code is

from helper import *
print(abc1)
print(abc2)

So by use of from helper import * I can import all variables and functions from it but if I use from helper import abc1 it only import abc1 value