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Can someone please explain why python relative imports aren't intuitive? [duplicate]

It seems there are already quite some questions here about relative import in python 3, but after going through many of them I still didn't find the answer for my issue.
so here is the question.
I have a package shown below
package/
__init__.py
A/
__init__.py
foo.py
test_A/
__init__.py
test.py
and I have a single line in test.py:
from ..A import foo
now, I am in the folder of package, and I run
python -m test_A.test
I got message
"ValueError: attempted relative import beyond top-level package"
but if I am in the parent folder of package, e.g., I run:
cd ..
python -m package.test_A.test
everything is fine.
Now my question is:
when I am in the folder of package, and I run the module inside the test_A sub-package as test_A.test, based on my understanding, ..A goes up only one level, which is still within the package folder, why it gives message saying beyond top-level package. What is exactly the reason that causes this error message?

EDIT: There are better/more coherent answers to this question in other questions:
Sibling package imports
Relative imports for the billionth time
Why doesn't it work? It's because python doesn't record where a package was loaded from. So when you do python -m test_A.test, it basically just discards the knowledge that test_A.test is actually stored in package (i.e. package is not considered a package). Attempting from ..A import foo is trying to access information it doesn't have any more (i.e. sibling directories of a loaded location). It's conceptually similar to allowing from ..os import path in a file in math. This would be bad because you want the packages to be distinct. If they need to use something from another package, then they should refer to them globally with from os import path and let python work out where that is with $PATH and $PYTHONPATH.
When you use python -m package.test_A.test, then using from ..A import foo resolves just fine because it kept track of what's in package and you're just accessing a child directory of a loaded location.
Why doesn't python consider the current working directory to be a package? NO CLUE, but gosh it would be useful.

import sys
sys.path.append("..") # Adds higher directory to python modules path.
Try this.
Worked for me.

Assumption:
If you are in the package directory, A and test_A are separate packages.
Conclusion:
..A imports are only allowed within a package.
Further notes:
Making the relative imports only available within packages is useful if you want to force that packages can be placed on any path located on sys.path.
EDIT:
Am I the only one who thinks that this is insane!? Why in the world is the current working directory not considered to be a package? – Multihunter
The current working directory is usually located in sys.path. So, all files there are importable. This is behavior since Python 2 when packages did not yet exist. Making the running directory a package would allow imports of modules as "import .A" and as "import A" which then would be two different modules. Maybe this is an inconsistency to consider.

None of these solutions worked for me in 3.6, with a folder structure like:
package1/
subpackage1/
module1.py
package2/
subpackage2/
module2.py
My goal was to import from module1 into module2. What finally worked for me was, oddly enough:
import sys
sys.path.append(".")
Note the single dot as opposed to the two-dot solutions mentioned so far.
Edit: The following helped clarify this for me:
import os
print (os.getcwd())
In my case, the working directory was (unexpectedly) the root of the project.

This is very tricky in Python.
I'll first comment on why you're having that problem and then I will mention two possible solutions.
What's going on?
You must take this paragraph from the Python documentation into consideration:
Note that relative imports are based on the name of the current
module. Since the name of the main module is always "main",
modules intended for use as the main module of a Python application
must always use absolute imports.
And also the following from PEP 328:
Relative imports use a module's name attribute to determine that
module's position in the package hierarchy. If the module's name does
not contain any package information (e.g. it is set to 'main')
then relative imports are resolved as if the module were a top level
module, regardless of where the module is actually located on the file
system.
Relative imports work from the filename (__name__ attribute), which can take two values:
It's the filename, preceded by the folder strucutre, separated by dots.
For eg: package.test_A.test
Here Python knows the parent directories: before test comes test_A and then package.
So you can use the dot notation for relative import.
# package.test_A/test.py
from ..A import foo
You can then have like a root file in the root directory which calls test.py:
# root.py
from package.test_A import test
When you run the module (test.py) directly, it becomes the entry point to the program , so __name__ == __main__. The filename has no indication of the directory structure, so Python doesn't know how to go up in the directory. For Python, test.py becomes the top-level script, there is nothing above it. That's why you cannot use relative import.
Possible Solutions
A) One way to solve this is to have a root file (in the root directory) which calls the modules/packages, like this:
root.py imports test.py. (entry point, __name__ == __main__).
test.py (relative) imports foo.py.
foo.py says the module has been imported.
The output is:
package.A.foo has been imported
Module's name is: package.test_A.test
B) If you want to execute the code as a module and not as a top-level script, you can try this from the command line:
python -m package.test_A.test
Any suggestions are welcomed.
You should also check: Relative imports for the billionth time , specially BrenBarn's answer.

from package.A import foo
I think it's clearer than
import sys
sys.path.append("..")

As the most popular answer suggests, basically its because your PYTHONPATH or sys.path includes . but not your path to your package. And the relative import is relative to your current working directory, not the file where the import happens; oddly.
You could fix this by first changing your relative import to absolute and then either starting it with:
PYTHONPATH=/path/to/package python -m test_A.test
OR forcing the python path when called this way, because:
With python -m test_A.test you're executing test_A/test.py with __name__ == '__main__' and __file__ == '/absolute/path/to/test_A/test.py'
That means that in test.py you could use your absolute import semi-protected in the main case condition and also do some one-time Python path manipulation:
from os import path
…
def main():
…
if __name__ == '__main__':
import sys
sys.path.append(path.join(path.dirname(__file__), '..'))
from A import foo
exit(main())

This is actually a lot simpler than what other answers make it out to be.
TL;DR: Import A directly instead of attempting a relative import.
The current working directory is not a package, unless you import the folder package from a different folder. So the behavior of your package will work fine if you intend it to be imported by other applications. What's not working is the tests...
Without changing anything in your directory structure, all that needs to be changed is how test.py imports foo.py.
from A import foo
Now running python -m test_A.test from the package directory will run without an ImportError.
Why does that work?
Your current working directory is not a package, but it is added to the path. Therefore you can import folder A and its contents directly. It is the same reason you can import any other package that you have installed... they're all included in your path.

Edit: 2020-05-08: Is seems the website I quoted is no longer controlled by the person who wrote the advice, so I'm removing the link to the site. Thanks for letting me know baxx.
If someone's still struggling a bit after the great answers already provided, I found advice on a website that no longer is available.
Essential quote from the site I mentioned:
"The same can be specified programmatically in this way:
import sys
sys.path.append('..')
Of course the code above must be written before the other import
statement.
It's pretty obvious that it has to be this way, thinking on it after the fact. I was trying to use the sys.path.append('..') in my tests, but ran into the issue posted by OP. By adding the import and sys.path defintion before my other imports, I was able to solve the problem.

Just remove .. in test.py
For me pytest works fine with that
Example:
from A import foo

if you have an __init__.py in an upper folder, you can initialize the import as
import file/path as alias in that init file. Then you can use it on lower scripts as:
import alias

In my case, I had to change to this:
Solution 1(more better which depend on current py file path. Easy to deploy)
Use pathlib.Path.parents make code cleaner
import sys
import os
import pathlib
target_path = pathlib.Path(os.path.abspath(__file__)).parents[3]
sys.path.append(target_path)
from utils import MultiFileAllowed
Solution 2
import sys
import os
sys.path.append(os.getcwd())
from utils import MultiFileAllowed

In my humble opinion, I understand this question in this way:
[CASE 1] When you start an absolute-import like
python -m test_A.test
or
import test_A.test
or
from test_A import test
you're actually setting the import-anchor to be test_A, in other word, top-level package is test_A . So, when we have test.py do from ..A import xxx, you are escaping from the anchor, and Python does not allow this.
[CASE 2] When you do
python -m package.test_A.test
or
from package.test_A import test
your anchor becomes package, so package/test_A/test.py doing from ..A import xxx does not escape the anchor(still inside package folder), and Python happily accepts this.
In short:
Absolute-import changes current anchor (=redefines what is the top-level package);
Relative-import does not change the anchor but confines to it.
Furthermore, we can use full-qualified module name(FQMN) to inspect this problem.
Check FQMN in each case:
[CASE2] test.__name__ = package.test_A.test
[CASE1] test.__name__ = test_A.test
So, for CASE2, an from .. import xxx will result in a new module with FQMN=package.xxx, which is acceptable.
While for CASE1, the .. from within from .. import xxx will jump out of the starting node(anchor) of test_A, and this is NOT allowed by Python.
[2022-07-19] I think this "relative-import" limitation is quite an ugly design, totally against (one of) Python's motto "Simple is better than complex".

Not sure in python 2.x but in python 3.6, assuming you are trying to run the whole suite, you just have to use -t
-t, --top-level-directory directory
Top level directory of project (defaults to start directory)
So, on a structure like
project_root
|
|----- my_module
| \
| \_____ my_class.py
|
\ tests
\___ test_my_func.py
One could for example use:
python3 unittest discover -s /full_path/project_root/tests -t /full_path/project_root/
And still import the my_module.my_class without major dramas.

Having
package/
__init__.py
A/
__init__.py
foo.py
test_A/
__init__.py
test.py
in A/__init__.py import foo:
from .foo import foo
when importing A/ from test_A/
import sys, os
sys.path.append(os.path.abspath('../A'))
# then import foo
import foo

Why does importing modules result in a circular import error

I have this for the layout of my project:
projectFolder /
setup/
__init__.py
setup.py
Utils /
__init__.py
cloudmanager.py
startup.py
I am trying to import the Setup Module inside my cloudmanager.py script (which is nested in one more directory). I can easily import both the setup module and the Utils module inside my startup.py script since it's in the root directory.
I've tried (inside my cloudmanager.py script):
from . import setup
Which gives me the error of:
ImportError: cannot import name 'setup' from partially initialized module 'Utils' (most likely due to a circular import)
and I've tried:
from .. import setup
Which gives me the error of:
ValueError: attempted relative import beyond top-level package
Any help? There are questions like this out there but they steer towards to using OS, which I'd like to avoid...

Okay, so the reason you're getting an error importing .. setup is indeed that you can't do relative imports when the parent directory is a package. A package is any directory with a __init__.py file in it.
You could solve this by doing one of two things:
You could make sure the root of your project is in the Python path and import everything in the root.
You could make your project's root directory itself a package and then use relative imports.
Option 1: Importing from the project root
If your projectFolder folder lives at /home/you/projects/projectFolder, make sure your PYTHONPATH has /home/you/projects/projectFolder in it. For example, when you run your main script, you could set it before hand. In bash (assuming a Unix environment):
export PYTHONPATH=/home/you/projects/projectFolder
python /home/you/projects/projectFolder/startup.py
You could also do that inside startup.py, if you want to avoid changing the external environment:
# startup.py
import os, sys
sys.path.append(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__)))
If you do that in startup.py, the directory of startup.py will always be in the Python path.
Once you one of those, you can base all your imports on the relative location of your project. Eg:
import setup.setup
import Utils.cloudmanager
(That will work in every file you import after the sys.path mutation runs)
Option 2: Relative imports
If you make your project's root a Python package, you can use relative imports entirely. Eg, you'd have these files:
projectFolder/__init__.py
projectFOlder/setup/__init__.py
projectFolder/setup/setup.py
projectFolder/Utils/__init__.py
projectFolder/Utils/cloudmanager.py
If you do that, inside cloudmanager.py, you could run from .. import setup just fine.
What do you do?
Both of these are valid options. In general relative imports have less ambiguity, since they avoid name collisions, but they're a newer feature of Python so option #1 is more common, in general.

Try to use:
import setup.setup

Python Relative Import within Brother/Sister Folder for AWS CodeBuild

I am building on AWS CodeBuild using Python 2.7, but I believe this is much more a generic python import problem. I have a directory setting, shown below. I am running test.py inside the test folder. I would like to import the dependency mainScript.py as part of this testing. However, I cannot seem to get the relative dependencies right and I am having a lot of difficulty importing the mainScript within the test folder. Below is a layout of my directory folder
main
src
mainScript.py
test
test.py
If for example my directory setup was something like
main
test
test.py
mainScript.py
I could have my import be done the following way
from mainScript import *
I have confirmed this works. But, I like it in its own src folder. I have tried all these These are the following relative path attempts I have tried
from ..src/mainScript import * #SyntaxError: invalid syntax
from ..src.mainScript import * #ValueError: attempted relative import beyond top-level package
from mainScript import * #ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'mainScript'
from src.mainScript import * #ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'src'
from src/mainScript import * #SyntaxError: invalid syntax
I have been struggling for a bit and I couldn't quite find a question with someone asking about accessing a brother/sister folder script. Thank you in advance for your help.

Python treats directories as packages if they contain a __init__.py file. Updating your structure to the following should do the trick:
__init__.py
src
__init__.py
mainScript.py
test
__init__.py
test.py
Now, from test.py, you could do from ..src import *. For more details on init.py, you can look here: What is __init__.py for?

In addition to adding the init.py files. It ended up being that I had to run python with the -m argument in my command, which was added in Python 2.4.
PEP 338
Python 2.4 adds the command line switch -m to allow modules to be
located using the Python module namespace for execution as scripts.
The motivating examples were standard library modules such as pdb and
profile, and the Python 2.4 implementation is fine for this limited
purpose.
So the command to launch from the top directory is:
python -m test.test
This seems to work and get the right namespace. Then in your test.py file you would import the mainScript the following way
from src.mainScript import *

beyond top level package error in relative import

It seems there are already quite some questions here about relative import in python 3, but after going through many of them I still didn't find the answer for my issue.
so here is the question.
I have a package shown below
package/
__init__.py
A/
__init__.py
foo.py
test_A/
__init__.py
test.py
and I have a single line in test.py:
from ..A import foo
now, I am in the folder of package, and I run
python -m test_A.test
I got message
"ValueError: attempted relative import beyond top-level package"
but if I am in the parent folder of package, e.g., I run:
cd ..
python -m package.test_A.test
everything is fine.
Now my question is:
when I am in the folder of package, and I run the module inside the test_A sub-package as test_A.test, based on my understanding, ..A goes up only one level, which is still within the package folder, why it gives message saying beyond top-level package. What is exactly the reason that causes this error message?

EDIT: There are better/more coherent answers to this question in other questions:
Sibling package imports
Relative imports for the billionth time
Why doesn't it work? It's because python doesn't record where a package was loaded from. So when you do python -m test_A.test, it basically just discards the knowledge that test_A.test is actually stored in package (i.e. package is not considered a package). Attempting from ..A import foo is trying to access information it doesn't have any more (i.e. sibling directories of a loaded location). It's conceptually similar to allowing from ..os import path in a file in math. This would be bad because you want the packages to be distinct. If they need to use something from another package, then they should refer to them globally with from os import path and let python work out where that is with $PATH and $PYTHONPATH.
When you use python -m package.test_A.test, then using from ..A import foo resolves just fine because it kept track of what's in package and you're just accessing a child directory of a loaded location.
Why doesn't python consider the current working directory to be a package? NO CLUE, but gosh it would be useful.

import sys
sys.path.append("..") # Adds higher directory to python modules path.
Try this.
Worked for me.

Assumption:
If you are in the package directory, A and test_A are separate packages.
Conclusion:
..A imports are only allowed within a package.
Further notes:
Making the relative imports only available within packages is useful if you want to force that packages can be placed on any path located on sys.path.
EDIT:
Am I the only one who thinks that this is insane!? Why in the world is the current working directory not considered to be a package? – Multihunter
The current working directory is usually located in sys.path. So, all files there are importable. This is behavior since Python 2 when packages did not yet exist. Making the running directory a package would allow imports of modules as "import .A" and as "import A" which then would be two different modules. Maybe this is an inconsistency to consider.

None of these solutions worked for me in 3.6, with a folder structure like:
package1/
subpackage1/
module1.py
package2/
subpackage2/
module2.py
My goal was to import from module1 into module2. What finally worked for me was, oddly enough:
import sys
sys.path.append(".")
Note the single dot as opposed to the two-dot solutions mentioned so far.
Edit: The following helped clarify this for me:
import os
print (os.getcwd())
In my case, the working directory was (unexpectedly) the root of the project.

This is very tricky in Python.
I'll first comment on why you're having that problem and then I will mention two possible solutions.
What's going on?
You must take this paragraph from the Python documentation into consideration:
Note that relative imports are based on the name of the current
module. Since the name of the main module is always "main",
modules intended for use as the main module of a Python application
must always use absolute imports.
And also the following from PEP 328:
Relative imports use a module's name attribute to determine that
module's position in the package hierarchy. If the module's name does
not contain any package information (e.g. it is set to 'main')
then relative imports are resolved as if the module were a top level
module, regardless of where the module is actually located on the file
system.
Relative imports work from the filename (__name__ attribute), which can take two values:
It's the filename, preceded by the folder strucutre, separated by dots.
For eg: package.test_A.test
Here Python knows the parent directories: before test comes test_A and then package.
So you can use the dot notation for relative import.
# package.test_A/test.py
from ..A import foo
You can then have like a root file in the root directory which calls test.py:
# root.py
from package.test_A import test
When you run the module (test.py) directly, it becomes the entry point to the program , so __name__ == __main__. The filename has no indication of the directory structure, so Python doesn't know how to go up in the directory. For Python, test.py becomes the top-level script, there is nothing above it. That's why you cannot use relative import.
Possible Solutions
A) One way to solve this is to have a root file (in the root directory) which calls the modules/packages, like this:
root.py imports test.py. (entry point, __name__ == __main__).
test.py (relative) imports foo.py.
foo.py says the module has been imported.
The output is:
package.A.foo has been imported
Module's name is: package.test_A.test
B) If you want to execute the code as a module and not as a top-level script, you can try this from the command line:
python -m package.test_A.test
Any suggestions are welcomed.
You should also check: Relative imports for the billionth time , specially BrenBarn's answer.

from package.A import foo
I think it's clearer than
import sys
sys.path.append("..")

As the most popular answer suggests, basically its because your PYTHONPATH or sys.path includes . but not your path to your package. And the relative import is relative to your current working directory, not the file where the import happens; oddly.
You could fix this by first changing your relative import to absolute and then either starting it with:
PYTHONPATH=/path/to/package python -m test_A.test
OR forcing the python path when called this way, because:
With python -m test_A.test you're executing test_A/test.py with __name__ == '__main__' and __file__ == '/absolute/path/to/test_A/test.py'
That means that in test.py you could use your absolute import semi-protected in the main case condition and also do some one-time Python path manipulation:
from os import path
…
def main():
…
if __name__ == '__main__':
import sys
sys.path.append(path.join(path.dirname(__file__), '..'))
from A import foo
exit(main())

This is actually a lot simpler than what other answers make it out to be.
TL;DR: Import A directly instead of attempting a relative import.
The current working directory is not a package, unless you import the folder package from a different folder. So the behavior of your package will work fine if you intend it to be imported by other applications. What's not working is the tests...
Without changing anything in your directory structure, all that needs to be changed is how test.py imports foo.py.
from A import foo
Now running python -m test_A.test from the package directory will run without an ImportError.
Why does that work?
Your current working directory is not a package, but it is added to the path. Therefore you can import folder A and its contents directly. It is the same reason you can import any other package that you have installed... they're all included in your path.

Edit: 2020-05-08: Is seems the website I quoted is no longer controlled by the person who wrote the advice, so I'm removing the link to the site. Thanks for letting me know baxx.
If someone's still struggling a bit after the great answers already provided, I found advice on a website that no longer is available.
Essential quote from the site I mentioned:
"The same can be specified programmatically in this way:
import sys
sys.path.append('..')
Of course the code above must be written before the other import
statement.
It's pretty obvious that it has to be this way, thinking on it after the fact. I was trying to use the sys.path.append('..') in my tests, but ran into the issue posted by OP. By adding the import and sys.path defintion before my other imports, I was able to solve the problem.

Just remove .. in test.py
For me pytest works fine with that
Example:
from A import foo

if you have an __init__.py in an upper folder, you can initialize the import as
import file/path as alias in that init file. Then you can use it on lower scripts as:
import alias

In my case, I had to change to this:
Solution 1(more better which depend on current py file path. Easy to deploy)
Use pathlib.Path.parents make code cleaner
import sys
import os
import pathlib
target_path = pathlib.Path(os.path.abspath(__file__)).parents[3]
sys.path.append(target_path)
from utils import MultiFileAllowed
Solution 2
import sys
import os
sys.path.append(os.getcwd())
from utils import MultiFileAllowed

In my humble opinion, I understand this question in this way:
[CASE 1] When you start an absolute-import like
python -m test_A.test
or
import test_A.test
or
from test_A import test
you're actually setting the import-anchor to be test_A, in other word, top-level package is test_A . So, when we have test.py do from ..A import xxx, you are escaping from the anchor, and Python does not allow this.
[CASE 2] When you do
python -m package.test_A.test
or
from package.test_A import test
your anchor becomes package, so package/test_A/test.py doing from ..A import xxx does not escape the anchor(still inside package folder), and Python happily accepts this.
In short:
Absolute-import changes current anchor (=redefines what is the top-level package);
Relative-import does not change the anchor but confines to it.
Furthermore, we can use full-qualified module name(FQMN) to inspect this problem.
Check FQMN in each case:
[CASE2] test.__name__ = package.test_A.test
[CASE1] test.__name__ = test_A.test
So, for CASE2, an from .. import xxx will result in a new module with FQMN=package.xxx, which is acceptable.
While for CASE1, the .. from within from .. import xxx will jump out of the starting node(anchor) of test_A, and this is NOT allowed by Python.
[2022-07-19] I think this "relative-import" limitation is quite an ugly design, totally against (one of) Python's motto "Simple is better than complex".

Not sure in python 2.x but in python 3.6, assuming you are trying to run the whole suite, you just have to use -t
-t, --top-level-directory directory
Top level directory of project (defaults to start directory)
So, on a structure like
project_root
|
|----- my_module
| \
| \_____ my_class.py
|
\ tests
\___ test_my_func.py
One could for example use:
python3 unittest discover -s /full_path/project_root/tests -t /full_path/project_root/
And still import the my_module.my_class without major dramas.

Having
package/
__init__.py
A/
__init__.py
foo.py
test_A/
__init__.py
test.py
in A/__init__.py import foo:
from .foo import foo
when importing A/ from test_A/
import sys, os
sys.path.append(os.path.abspath('../A'))
# then import foo
import foo

python packaging for relative imports

First off all: I'm sorry, I know there has been lots of question about relative imports, but I just didn't find a solution. If possible I would like to use the following directory layout:
myClass/
__init__.py
test/
demo.py
benchmark.py
specs.py
src/
__init__.py
myClass.py
Now my questions are:
How do the test files from within the package properly import myClass.py?
How would you import the package from outside, assuming you take myClass as submodule in libs/myClass or include/myClass?
So far I couldn't find an elegant solution for this. From what I understand Guido's Decision it should be possible to do from ..src import myClass but this will error:
ValueError: Attempted relative import in non-package
Which looks as it doesn't treat myClass as packages. Reading the docs:
The __init__.py files are required to make Python treat the directories as containing packages;
It seems I'm missing something that specifies where the scripts of the package are, should I use .pth ?

ValueError: Attempted relative import in non-package
Means you attempt to use relative import in the module which is not package. Its problem with the file which has this from ... import statement, and not the file which you are trying to import.
So if you are doing relative imports in your tests, for example, you should make your tests to be part of your package. This means
Adding __init__.py to test/
Running them from some outside script, like nosetests
If you run something as python myClass/test/demo.py, relative imports will not work too since you are running demo module not as package. Relative imports require that the module which uses them is being imported itself either as package module, from myClass.test.demo import blabla, or with relative import.

After hours of searching last night I found the answer to relative imports in python!! Or an easy solution at the very least. The best way to fix this is to have the modules called from another module. So say you want demo.py to import myClass.py. In the myClass folder at the root of the sub-packages they need to have a file that calls the other two. From what I gather the working directory is always considered __main__ so if you test the import from demo.py with the demo.py script, you will receive that error. To illustrate:
Folder hierarchy:
myClass/
main.py #arbitrary name, can be anything
test/
__init__.py
demo.py
src/
__init__.py
myClass.py
myClass.py:
def randomMaths(x):
a = x * 2
y = x * a
return y
demo.py:
from ..src import myClass
def printer():
print(myClass.randomMaths(42))
main.py:
import test.demo
demo.printer()
If you run demo.py in the interpreter, you will generate an error, but running main.py will not. It's a little convoluted, but it works :D

Intra-package-references describes how to myClass from test/*. To import the package from outside, you should add its path to PYTHONPATH environment variable before running the importer application, or to sys.path list in the code before importing it.
Why from ..src import myClass fails: probably, src is not a python package, you cannot import from there. You should add it to python path as described above.