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cannot import submodule from a module [duplicate]

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Attempted relative import with no known parent package [duplicate]
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Closed 1 year ago.
I am having following structure for my project
Object_Detection/
setup.py
setup.cfg
requirement.txt
object_detection/
models
__init__.py #contains from . import models
tests/
# inside tests dir
test_utils_image.py
__init__.py #empty
utils/
# inside utils dir
__init__.py #inside
utils_image_preprocess.py
utils_image.py
utils_tfrecord.py
Now init.py inside utils directory contains the following code.
# inside __init__.py
from . import utils_image_preprocess
from . import utils_image
from . import utils_tfrecord
Running above init.py files gives me an error:
ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package
test_utils.py inside tests dir contains the following code
# inside test_utils.py
from object_detection.utils import utils_image
While running test_utils.py I got the following error
ImportError: cannot import name 'utils_image' from 'object_detection.utils'
I have gone through this and this and tried to follow every aspect mentioned there but details about what to put inside init.py is not clear.
This problem seems to be associated with the structuring of init.py in different dir.
I have gone through various and got to know that if we keep even an empty init.py file then things will work out but I am not sure about my understanding.
Please let me know
what I am missing here and whether I am following the correct structure for packaging my code or not?
How to resolve these two errors?
Is this issue related to setting up source in IDE as I am using Vscode and I have also seen this has been mentioned at many places. See here? (But also tried the same code with PyCharm and encountered same error )

If you want to be able to say ...
from object_detection.utils import utils_image
... then clearly the utils directory must be a subdirectory of the object_detection directory and not a sibling directory, i.e. at the same level.
Now for your other error:
ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package
You did not really specify under what circumstances you get this error other than saying "Running above init.py files gives me an error:". But how are you "running" these py files or what does that even mean?
If you are executing a script when this occurs (how else would you be getting this error?), the script must be invoked as a module (because scripts cannot have relative imports -- see below) as follows (we will assume that the script you are trying to execute is test_utils_image.py):
First, the parent directory of object_detection, which is Object_Detection, must be in the system path of directories to be searched for finding modules and packages referenced in import statements. In general, this can be accomplished several ways, for instance
The script you are executing is in Object_Detection (the directory of the script is automatically added to the sys.path list of directories to be searched by the interpreter).
Dynamically appending Object_Detection to the sys.path list of directories at runtime by your script.
Appending Object_Detection to the PYTHONPATH environment variable.
Item 1 above would not be applicable for this specific case since the module we are executing by definition is not in the Object_Detection directory.
Note that if your classes will eventually be installed with pip, then site-packages will be the parent directory of object_detection, which is already in sys.path.
Then you can execute your script as:
python -m tests.test_utils_image
If you want to execute this .py file as a script, for example by right-mouse clicking on it is VS Code, then see Relative imports for the billionth time, in particular the section Scripts can't import relative, which says it all -- it cannot work!
To invoke this as a script, just convert the relative imports to absolute imports. In fact, the PEP 8 Style Guide says:
Absolute imports are recommended, as they are usually more readable and tend to be better behaved (or at least give better error messages) if the import system is incorrectly configured (such as when a directory inside a package ends up on sys.path):

Have you tried to do the following?
inside your utils __init__.py import your modules as follows:
from .utils_image_preprocess import <func1>... <rest of functions/classes you want to import>
from .utils_image import <func1>... <rest of functions/classes you want to import>
from .utils_tfrecord import <func1>... <rest of functions/classes you want to import>
And then in your test file do:
from object_detection.utils.utils_image import *
OR
from object_detection.utils.utils_image import <func1>,...
Also, make sure you don't have any circular dependencies in your modules. for example importing of function from your tests to your util module and vise versa

Python3 has two types of packages
Regular Packages
Namespace Packages
Regular packages contains init.py and namespace packages don't need to have init.py
Regarding your folder structure, it is correct, no change needed. You just need to import like this
from utils import utils_image
without mentioning the objects_detection as objects_detection is just a namespace package.
So it would be usefull when you would refer to the utils module from outside the objects_detection folder.
Here what python docs say about the namespace packages:
A namespace package is a composite of various portions, where each portion contributes a subpackage to the parent package.

How do I find details of this python package (__main__)? [duplicate]

Currently trying to work in Python3 and use absolute imports to import one module into another but I get the error ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '__main__.moduleB'; '__main__' is not a package. Consider this project structure:
proj
__init__.py3 (empty)
moduleA.py3
moduleB.py3
moduleA.py3
from .moduleB import ModuleB
ModuleB.hello()
moduleB.py3
class ModuleB:
def hello():
print("hello world")
Then running python3 moduleA.py3 gives the error. What needs to be changed here?

.moduleB is a relative import. Relative only works when the parent module is imported or loaded first. That means you need to have proj imported somewhere in your current runtime environment. When you are are using command python3 moduleA.py3, it is getting no chance to import parent module. You can:
from proj.moduleB import moduleB OR
You can create another script, let's say run.py, to invoke from proj import moduleA
Good luck with your journey to the awesome land of Python.

Foreword
I'm developing a project which in fact is a Python package that can be installed through pip, but it also exposes a command line interface. I don't have problems running my project after installing it with pip install ., but hey, who does this every time after changing something in one of the project files? I needed to run the whole thing through simple python mypackage/main.py.
/my-project
- README.md
- setup.py
/mypackage
- __init__.py
- main.py
- common.py
The different faces of the same problem
I tried importing a few functions in main.py from my common.py module. I tried different configurations that gave different errors, and I want to share with you with my observations and leave a quick note for future me as well.
Relative import
The first what I tried was a relative import:
from .common import my_func
I ran my application with simple: python mypackage/main.py. Unfortunately this gave the following error:
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '__main__.common'; '__main__' is not a package
The cause of this problem is that the main.py was executed directly by python command, thus becoming the main module named __main__. If we connect this information with the relative import we used, we get what we have in the error message: __main__.common. This is explained in the Python documentation:
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.
When I installed my package with pip install . and then ran it, it worked perfectly fine. I was also able to import mypackage.main module in a Python console. So it looks like there's a problem only with running it directly.
Absolute import
Let's follow the advise from the documentation and change the import statement to something different:
from common import my_func
If we now try to run this as before: python mypackage/main.py, then it works as expected! But, there's a caveat when you, like me, develop something that need to work as a standalone command line tool after installing it with pip. I installed my package with pip install . and then tried to run it...
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'common'
What's worse, when I opened a Python console, and tried to import the main module manually (import mypackage.main), then I got the same error as above. The reason for that is simple: common is no longer a relative import, so Python tries to find it in installed packages. We don't have such package, that's why it fails.
The solution with an absolute import works well only when you create a typical Python app that is executed with a python command.
Import with a package name
There is also a third possibility to import the common module:
from mypackage.common import my_func
This is not very different from the relative import approach, as long as we do it from the context of mypackage. And again, trying to run this with python mypackage/main.py ends similar:
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'mypackage'
How irritating that could be, the interpreter is right, you don't have such package installed.
The solution
For simple Python apps
Just use absolute imports (without the dot), and everything will be fine.
For installable Python apps in development
Use relative imports, or imports with a package name on the beginning, because you need them like this when your app is installed. When it comes to running such module in development, Python can be executed with the -m option:
-m mod : run library module as a script (terminates option list)
So instead of python mypackage/main.py, do it like this: python -m mypackage.main.

In addition to md-sabuj-sarker's answer, there is a really good example in the Python modules documentation.
This is what the docs say about intra-package-references:
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.
If you run python3 moduleA.py3, moduleA is used as the main module, so using the absolute import looks like the right thing to do.
However, beware that this absolute import (from package.module import something) fails if, for some reason, the package contains a module file with the same name as the package (at least, on my Python 3.7). So, for example, it would fail if you have (using the OP's example):
proj/
__init__.py (empty)
proj.py (same name as package)
moduleA.py
moduleB.py
in which case you would get:
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'proj.moduleB'; 'proj' is not a package
Alternatively, you could remove the . in from .moduleB import, as suggested here and here, which seems to work, although my PyCharm (2018.2.4) marks this as an "Unresolved reference" and fails to autocomplete.

Maybe you can do this before importing the module：
moduleA.py3
import os
import sys
sys.path.append(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
from moduleB import ModuleB
ModuleB.hello()
Add the current directory to the environment directory

Just rename the file from where you run the app to main.py:
from app import app
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run()

import os
import sys
sys.path.append(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
will solve the issue of import path issue.

Import Error: No Module named common

My folder structure in pycharm is as follows.
--python
--concepts
--common
--myds.py
--__init__.py
--data_structures
--test_ds.py
I have the following line in test_ds.py
from common import my_ds
I get the following error.
ImportError: No module named 'common'
I have added common to Settings --> Project Interpreter -> Interpreter Paths
and the folder shows up as library root.
Still why am I getting this error.

Try from ..common import my_ds. Also make sure that it has an __init__.py file in that directory (not required but it's good practice).
As for the .. they indicate that you're importing from the parent package to the one you're currently on.

You need to make your common folder into a python package in order to import it in python. I think you've tried to do it and created init file in your common folder but actually it must be __init__.py. Rename it like this and then your package will be visible to python.
Hope it helps!

Python No module named

I have a custom module that I am trying to read from a folder under a hierarchy:
> project-source
/tests
/provider
my_provider.py
settings_mock.py
__init__.py
I am trying to call, from my_provider.py
import tests.settings_mock as settings
Example from command line:
project-source> python tests/provider/my_provider.py
Error:
... ImportError: No module named settings_mock
I keep getting No module named settings_mock as error. I have already exported project_source path to PYTHONPATH. I have made tests into a package by creating a __init__.py file in its root, but no change in the error then.
I can print the settings_mock.py attributes when cd'ing project source
>>> import tests.settings_mock as settings
>>> print settings.storage_provider
correct storage provider value
Is anyone able to point out my mistake here? Thanks!

You only have one small mistake. To use subfolders, you need __init__.py, not init.py as you stated in the question. The difference is that __init__ is a builtin function of python, whereas init is not. Having this file in each subfolder tells the pyhon interpreter that the folder is a "package" that needs to be initialized.
UPDATED: It should be noted that python usually runs from the current directory that the script is located. If your executable main script is my_provider.py, then it's not going to know what to import, since the main script is located in a lower directory than the object it is trying to import. Think of it as a hierarchy. Scripts can only import things that are beneath them. Try separating out the executable from everything else in that file, if there are things that settings_mock needs to import.

Importing Python class from sibling directory

My Directory structure in /VM/repo/project is:
__init__.py
scripts/
getSomething.py
__init__.py
classes/
project.py
db.py
__init__.py
getSomething.py
from ..classes import project
from ..classes import db
project.py
class PROJECT:
def __init__(self):
stuff
db.py
class DB:
def __init__(self):
stuff
When I try to run
python getSomething.py
I get the error
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "scripts/getSomething.py", line 4, in < module >
from ..classes import project
ValueError: Attempted relative import in non-package
What am I missing here?

As stated in the error, you're running getSomething as a main module. But you can't do package relative imports when you aren't in a package. The main module is never in a package. So, if you were to import getSomething as part of a package...:
# /VM/repo/main.py
from project.scripts import getSomething
Then you would not have the import errors.
Perhaps it is helpful to have a quick discussion on python modules and packages. In general, a file that contains python source code and has the .py extension is a module. Typically that module's name is the name of the file (sans extension), but if you run it directly, that module's name is '__main__'. So far, this is all well known and documented. To import a module you just do import module or import package.module and so on. This last import statement refers to something else (a "package") which we'll talk about now...
Packages are directories that you can import. Many directories can't be imported (e.g. maybe they have no python source files -- modules -- in them). So to resolve this ambiguity, there is also the requirement that the directory has an __init__.py file. When you import a directory on your filesystem, python actually imports the __init__.py module and creates the associated package from the things in __init__.py (if there are any).
Putting all of this together shows why executing a file inside a directory that has an __init__.py is not enough for python to consider the module to be part of a package. First, the name of the module is __main__, not package.filename_sans_extension. Second, the creation of a package depends not just on the filesystem structure, but on whether the directory (and therefore __init__.py was actually imported).
You might be asking yourself "Why did they design it this way?" Indeed, I've asked myself that same question on occasion. I think that the reason is because the language designers want certain guarantees to be in place for a package. A package should be a unit of things which are designed to work together for a specific purpose. It shouldn't be a silo of scripts that by virtue of a few haphazard __init__.py files gain the ability to walk around the filesystem to find the other modules that they need. If something is designed to be run as a main module, then it probably shouldn't be part of the package. Rather it should be a separate module that imports the package and relies on it.