Python package import works in Spyder but not VS Code - python

I know there are dozens of Python package import questions, but I can't seem to find an answer that works. Most answers seem to be about the missing __init__.py to make a package, but I've got one in the base of the project (and I've tried in the sub-folders as well).
I have a project of the form
package
+-- __init__.py
+-- weasel.py
+-- badgers
| +-- __init__.py
| +-- a.py
where weasel.py just contains a test function
def test_function():
return "HELLO"
and I want to be able to call test_function from a.py, I've attempted (all with and without the init.py in the folder badgers) and none of which seem to work.
import weasel -> ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'weasel'
from . import weasel -> ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package
import package.weasel -> ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'package'
from package import weasel
The hack I've managed to employ thus far, which works fine in Spyder and in my production environment; project is a Dash App (so Flask) deployed to render.
import sys
sys.path.append("..")
import weasel
But this just throws ModuleNotFoundError in VS Code.
I'm not adverse to a hack :S but the needs of the current project kinda make life much, much, easier if I could build the project in VS Code.
Please, I implore the stackoverflow community could someone please let me know what I'm doing wrong? Or a hack that will work in VS Code?
Thank you,

This is caused by the path. The path of vscode running file is not the current file path. You need to add it manually.
import sys
sys.path.append("your package's Path") #for example, my path is "C:/my_python/package"
import weasel
Here is my directory structure.
Tips:
Do not use "..", it will really adds two commas to path instead of parent directory.

Related

Python, absolute/relative import not working as expected

I apologize for the millionth post about this topic.
I thought I had a good grip of the whole absolute/relative import mechanism - I even replied to a couple of questions about it myself - but I'm having a problem with it and I can't figure out how to solve it.
I'm using Python 3.8.0, this is my directory structure:
project_folder
scripts/
main.py
models/
__init__.py
subfolder00/
subfolder01/
some_script.py --> contains def for some_function
I need to import some_function from some_script.py when running main.py, so I tried:
1) relative import
# in main.py
from ..models.subfolder00.subfolder01.somescript import some_function
but when I run (from the scripts/ folder)
python main.py
this fails with error:
ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package
This was expected, because I'm running main.py directly as a script, so its _name_ is set to _main_ and relative imports are bound to fail.
However, I was expecting it to work when running (always from within the scripts folder):
python -m main
but I'm getting always the same error.
2) absolute import
I tried changing the import in main.py to:
# in main.py
from models.subfolder00.subfolder01.somescript import some_function
and running, this time from the main project folder:
python scripts/main.py
so that - I was assuming - the starting point for the absolute import would be the project folder itself, from which it could get to models/....
But now I'm getting the error:
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'models'
Why didn't it work when using the -m option in the case of relative import, and it's not working when using absolute ones either? Which is the correct way to do this?
I think quite likely you missed python's official doc ( that even come offline )
https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/modules.html
you'll need a dummy __init__.py within your module, at same level of some_script.py
I think your "absolute" import may not have been absolute in the truest sense.
Prior to running the python scripts/main.py command, you would have needed to setup PYTHONPATH environment variable to include the path to project_folder.
Alternatively I do something like this in main.py:
import sys
import os
sys.path.append(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)),'..','models','subfolder00','subfolder01'))
from somescript import some_function
Maybe it is a little pedantic, but it makes sense to me.

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

importing modules in application, not package

I am writing a Python (Python3) application (not a package) and have some doubts about the correct directory structure. At the moment I have this:
myapp/
__init__.py
launch.py
core/
__init__.py
some_core_class.py
other_core_class.py
gui/
__init__.py
some_gui_class.py
other_gui_class.py
I want the application to be started with python launch.py from any place in my directory structure - of course with prepending the correct path to launch.py, e.g. python myapps/myapp/launch.py.
Inside my modules I use absolute imports, e.g. in some_core_class.py I write from myapp.core.other_core_class import OtherCoreClass. I use the same way in launch.py, e.g. from myapp.core.some_core_class import SomeCoreClass.
But then launching it for example directly from dir myapp by writing python launch.py results in ImportError: No module named 'myapp'. I found I could make it work by changing my import in launch.py to from core.some_core_class import SomeCoreClass but this does not seem to me as a correct absolute import and is inconsistent with imports in other files.
What is the best way to solve my issue? I would like to avoid adding myapp to PATH environment variable which would require manual edit by the user or an installer. How should I change my code or my imports to make the application launchable from anywhere? Is that even possible?
I have just found, I can solve it by prepending
import os
import sys
app_parent_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
sys.path.append(app_parent_dir)
at the very beginning of my launch.py. But this is so ugly and feels like a hack. There must be a better way. Python should not be ugly. Awaiting for better answers...

How to import a module from a folder next to the current folder?

I have checked as many SO pages as I could and tried everything I found, but none have been successful. I also checked the PEP page regarding importing and tried every example, none of which worked.
I have a tests folder with unit tests in them, and I need to import the module I want to test. The modules are in a folder called 'src' which is next to the src folder.
The folders/files look something like this:
Project /
src /
stringbuilder.py
__init__.py
tests /
stringbuilder_test.py
__init__.py
main.py
__init__.py
I have tried everything I could: adding __init__.py to every folder making it a module including the project's main folder.
import src.module_to_test
from ..src.module_to_test import function_to_test
from ..src import module_to_test
I have tested all other combinations all of which have failed. I am starting to think there must be something wrong with either my settings or understanding-- I thought this was suppose to be simple.
If I am making any obvious errors please let me know.
from tests import stringbuilder
Error Message:
$ ./stringbuilder_test.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./stringbuilder_test.py", line 14, in <module>
from tests import stringbuilder
ImportError: No module named tests
The same error occurs for (but tests = src):
from src import stringbuilder
If scripts are executed from inside a package, then various hacks need to be employed to get the imports to work properly. Probably the most common of these is to manipulate sys.path:
import sys, os
sys.path.insert(0,
os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))))
from src import stringbuilder
del sys.path[0]
There is no way to achieve this using normal import statements.
A generally better solution is to simply avoid running scripts inside packages altogether. Instead, put all scripts outside the package in a containing directory. Given that the directory of the currently running script is automatically added to the start of sys.path, this will guarantee that the package can be always be directly imported, no matter where the script is executed from.
So the directory structure might look something like this:
project /
package /
__init__.py
src /
__init__.py
stringbuilder.py
tests /
__init__.py
stringbuilder_test.py
main.py
test.py
The test.py script can then import its tests like this:
from package.tests import stringbuilder_test
And stringbuilder_test.py can import the src modules like this:
from package.src import stringbuilder
from folder import my_module
If there is a __init__.py file in folder.
Add that folder to your PATH.

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.

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