Meet import error in terminal, but PyCharm can run it

Question

My python project is like this:

- project
|
-- datasets
|
----__init__.py
|
----toy.py
|
--trainer
|
----train.py

In datasets/__init__.py :

# datasets/__init__.py
from .toy import xxx

And I try to import functions and classes from toy.py in train.py . So, in train.py , I write:

import datasets

if __name__ == '__main__':
    print(datasets.__dict__)

When I issue python trainer/train.py in terminal, an import error occurs:

"ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'datasets'"

But, I can run train.py in Pycharm by clicking the "run" button on the right corner.

Can anyone tell me why and give any advice to fix it?

Answer 1

pycharm adds your project directory to the PYTHONPATH environment variable (you could add other folders with Settings->Project Structure->Add Content Root).

Outside of the virtual environment of pycharm your project was not set to any search path. Two options:

1. Append project path to PYTHONPATH environment variable (either create new environment variable PYTHONPATH or add path with ";" to existing variable)
2. use sys.path.append: add following lines

  import sys
  sys.path.append(r"../project")

before import datasets in train.py