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Python - Importing function from external file and global modules

In order to simplify my code, I have put various functions into external files with I load via:
from (external_file) import (function_name)
...which works fine.
My question though has to do with other modules, such as cv2 or numpy - do I need those listed in my external file (as well as my main file) or is there a way to just list them in my main file?

Each file you put Python code in is its own module. Each module has its own namespace. If some of your code (in any module) uses some library code, it will need some way to access the library from the namespace it is defined in.
Usually this means you need to import the library in each module it's being used from. Don't worry about duplication, modules are cached when they are first loaded, so additional imports from other modules will quickly find the existing module and just add a reference to it in their own namespaces.
Note that it's generally not a good idea to split up your code too much. There's certainly no need for every function or every class to have its own file. Instead, use modules to group related things together. If you have a couple of functions that interoperate a lot, put them in the same module.

What is the benefit of putting an import statement inside of a class? [duplicate]

I created a module named util that provides classes and functions I often use in Python.
Some of them need imported features. What are the pros and the cons of importing needed things inside class/function definition? Is it better than import at the beginning of a module file? Is it a good idea?

It's the most common style to put every import at the top of the file. PEP 8 recommends it, which is a good reason to do it to start with. But that's not a whim, it has advantages (although not critical enough to make everything else a crime). It allows finding all imports at a glance, as opposed to looking through the whole file. It also ensures everything is imported before any other code (which may depend on some imports) is executed. NameErrors are usually easy to resolve, but they can be annoying.
There's no (significant) namespace pollution to be avoided by keeping the module in a smaller scope, since all you add is the actual module (no, import * doesn't count and probably shouldn't be used anyway). Inside functions, you'd import again on every call (not really harmful since everything is imported once, but uncalled for).

PEP8, the Python style guide, states that:
Imports are always put at the top of
the file, just after any module
comments and docstrings, and before module globals and constants.
Of course this is no hard and fast rule, and imports can go anywhere you want them to. But putting them at the top is the best way to go about it. You can of course import within functions or a class.
But note you cannot do this:
def foo():
from os import *
Because:
SyntaxWarning: import * only allowed at module level

Like flying sheep's answer, I agree that the others are right, but I put imports in other places like in __init__() routines and function calls when I am DEVELOPING code. After my class or function has been tested and proven to work with the import inside of it, I normally give it its own module with the import following PEP8 guidelines. I do this because sometimes I forget to delete imports after refactoring code or removing old code with bad ideas. By keeping the imports inside the class or function under development, I am specifying its dependencies should I want to copy it elsewhere or promote it to its own module...

Only move imports into a local scope, such as inside a function definition, if it’s necessary to solve a problem such as avoiding a circular import or are trying to reduce the initialization time of a module. This technique is especially helpful if many of the imports are unnecessary depending on how the program executes. You may also want to move imports into a function if the modules are only ever used in that function. Note that loading a module the first time may be expensive because of the one time initialization of the module, but loading a module multiple times is virtually free, costing only a couple of dictionary lookups. Even if the module name has gone out of scope, the module is probably available in sys.modules.
https://docs.python.org/3/faq/programming.html#what-are-the-best-practices-for-using-import-in-a-module

I believe that it's best practice (according to some PEP's) that you keep import statements at the beginning of a module. You can add import statements to an __init__.py file, which will import those module to all modules inside the package.
So...it's certainly something you can do the way you're doing it, but it's discouraged and actually unnecessary.

While the other answers are mostly right, there is a reason why python allows this.
It is not smart to import redundant stuff which isn’t needed. So, if you want to e.g. parse XML into an element tree, but don’t want to use the slow builtin XML parser if lxml is available, you would need to check this the moment you need to invoke the parser.
And instead of memorizing the availability of lxml at the beginning, I would prefer to try importing and using lxml, except it’s not there, in which case I’d fallback to the builtin xml module.

In python, what are the pros and cons of importing a class vs. importing the class's module?

I'm authoring a set of python coding guidelines for a team of ~30 developers. As a basis for my document, so far I've studied the Google python style guide and the PEP 8 style guide, and incorporated information from both.
One place where the Google style guide is more restrictive than PEP 8 is with imports. The Google guide requests developers only import packages and modules only, and then refer to items within by a more-qualified name. For example:
from pkg import module
...
my_class = module.MyClass()
The justification is that the "source of each identifier is indicated in a consistent way". For our project, we intend to organize with packages two or three levels deep, so to know the full source of the identifier, the reader will likely need to examine the import statement anyway. I'd like to advocate this style of import as a "preferred style":
from pkg.module import MyClass
...
my_class = MyClass()
IMHO, the readability in python constructs such as list comprehensions is improved when the names are more succinct.
What I'm unclear on is what the python interpreter might do behind the scenes. For example, is MyClass now part of the global namespace for both this module, and all importers of this module? (This would be bad, could lead to some weird bugs; if this were true, I'd advocate the Google style).
My python development experience is limited to about 6 months (and there are not many experts on our project to consult), so I wanted to get more information from the community. Here are some items I've researched already:
effbot - discussion on imports
stack overflow - import vs. from import
python documentation - modules
python documentation - import
Thank you for your responses!

In Python, there is no such thing as a variable that is global across more than one module. If you do from pkg.module import MyClass, then MyClass is in the global namespace of the module where you do that, but not of any other module (including modules that import the module that imports MyClass).
As for your more general question, either import mechanism can be acceptable depending on the situation. If the module name is long, you can get some shortening by importing it under a different name:
# Awkward
from package import reallylongmodule
reallylongmodule.MyClass()
# Less awkward
from package import reallylongmodule as rlm
rlm.MyClass()
Importing just the class can be okay if the class name is distinctive enough that you can tell where it comes from and what it is. However, if you have multiple modules that define classes with relatively undescriptive names (e.g., "Processor", "Unit", "Data", "Manager"), then it can be a good idea to access them via the module name to clarify what you're doing.
Style guides are ultimately guides and not laws. My own preference would be to choose a mechanism that maximizes clarity and readability. That involves a tradeoff between avoiding long and cumbersome names, and also avoiding short, vague, or cryptic names. How you make that tradeoff depends on the particular libraries you're using and how you're using them (e.g., how many modules you import, how many things you import from them).

I suggest you to use automatic code checkers, like pylint, pep8, pyflakes, instead of writing code guides.
I personally prefer to use from pkg import module, because of possible name collisions.
from package import module
def my_fun():
module.function()
Inpreter must do 3 hash-table lookups local function namespace, current module's global namespace and imported module's namespace.
In
from package.module import function
def my_fun():
function()
it will do only 2 lookups: the last one performed in import time.

Python Auto Importing [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Perl's AUTOLOAD in Python (getattr on a module)
I'm coming from a PHP background and attempting to learn Python, and I want to be sure to do things the "Python way" instead of how i've developed before.
My question comes from the fact in PHP5 you can set up your code so if you attempt to call a class that doesn't exist in the namespace, a function will run first that will load the class in and allow you to continue on as if it were already loaded. the advantages to this is classes weren't loaded unless they were called, and you didn't have to worry about loading classes before using them.
In python, there's alot of emphasis on the import statement, is it bad practice to attempt an auto importing trick with python, to alleviate the need for an import statement? I've found this module that offers auto importing, however I dont know if that's the best way of doing it, or if auto importing of modules is something that is recommended, thoughts?

Imports serve at least two other important purposes besides making the modules or contents of the modules available:
They serve as a sort of declaration of intent -- "this module uses services from this other module" or "this module uses services belonging to a certain class" -- e.g. if you are doing a security review for socket-handling code, you can begin by only looking at modules that import socket (or other networking-related modules)
Imports serve as a proxy for the complexity of a module. If you find yourself with dozens of lines of imports, it may be time to reconsider your separation of concerns within the module, or within your application as a whole. This is also a good reason to avoid "from foo import *"-type imports.

In Python, people usually avoid auto imports, just because it is not worth the effort. You may slightly remove startup costs, but otherwise, there is no (or should be no) significant effect. If you have modules that are expensive to import and do a lot of stuff that doesn't need to be done, rather rewrite the module than delay importing it.
That said, there is nothing inherently wrong with auto imports. Because of the proxy nature, there may be some pitfalls (e.g. when looking at a thing that has not been imported yet). Several auto importing libraries are floating around.

If you are learning Python and want to do things the Python way, then just import the modules. It's very unusual to find autoimports in Python code.

You could auto-import the modules, but the most I have ever needed to import was about 10, and that is after I tacked features on top of the original program. You won't be importing a lot, and the names are very easy to remember.

Why does mass importing not work but importing definition individually works?

So I just met a strange so-called bug. Because this work on my other .py files, but just on this file it suddenly stopped working.
from tuttobelo.management.models import *
The above used to work, but it stopped working all of a sudden, and I had to replace it with the bottom.
from tuttobelo.management.models import Preferences, ProductVariant, UserSeller, ProductOwner, ProductModel, ProductVariant
from tuttobelo.management.models import ProductMeta, ShippingMethods
I know the following is the better way of coding, however ALL of the models mentioned in models are used, so my question is, what possible reasons can wildcard stop working?
The error I got was that the model I was trying to import does not exist, only if I remove the wildcard and import the name of the model could I get it imported properly.
Thanks!

Maybe the models module has an __all__ which does not include what you're looking for. Anyway, from ... import * is never a good idea in production code -- we always meant the import * feature for interactive exploratory use, not production use. Specifically import the module you need -- use that name to qualify names that belong there -- and you'll be vastly happier in the long run!-)

There are some cases in Python where importing with * will not yield anything. In your example, if tuttobelo.management.models is a package (i.e. a directory with an __init__.py) with the files Preferences.py, ProductVariant.py, etc in it, importing with star will not work, unless you already have imported it explicitly somewhere else.
This can be solved by putting in the __init__.py:
__all__ = ['Preferences', 'ProductVariant', 'UserSeller', <etc...> ]
This will make it possible to do import * again, but as noted, that's a horrible coding style for several reasons. One, tools like pyflakes and pylint, and code introspection in your editor, stops working. Secondly, you end up putting a lot of names in the local namespace, which in your code you don't know where they come from, and secondly you can get clashes in names like this.
A better way is to do
from tuttobelo.management import models
And then refer to the other things by models.Preferences, models.ProductVariant etc. This however will not work with the __all__ variable. Instead you need to import the modules from the __init__.py:
import Preferences, ProductVariant, UserSeller, ProductOwner, <etc...>
The drawback of this is that all modules get imported even if you don't use them, which means it will take more memory.