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Restore np.array after accidentally assigning to it [duplicate]

How do I reimport a module? I want to reimport a module after making changes to its .py file.

For Python 3.4+:
import importlib
importlib.reload(nameOfModule)
For Python < 3.4:
reload(my.module)
From the Python docs
Reload a previously imported module. The argument must be a module object, so it must have been successfully imported before. This is useful if you have edited the module source file using an external editor and want to try out the new version without leaving the Python interpreter.
Don't forget the caveats of using this method:
When a module is reloaded, its dictionary (containing the module’s global variables) is retained. Redefinitions of names will override the old definitions, so this is generally not a problem, but if the new version of a module does not define a name that was defined by the old version, the old definition is not removed.
If a module imports objects from another module using from ... import ..., calling reload() for the other module does not redefine the objects imported from it — one way around this is to re-execute the from statement, another is to use import and qualified names (module.*name*) instead.
If a module instantiates instances of a class, reloading the module that defines the class does not affect the method definitions of the instances — they continue to use the old class definition. The same is true for derived classes.

In python 3, reload is no longer a built in function.
If you are using python 3.4+ you should use reload from the importlib library instead:
import importlib
importlib.reload(some_module)
If you are using python 3.2 or 3.3 you should:
import imp
imp.reload(module)
instead. See http://docs.python.org/3.0/library/imp.html#imp.reload
If you are using ipython, definitely consider using the autoreload extension:
%load_ext autoreload
%autoreload 2

Actually, in Python 3 the module imp is marked as DEPRECATED. Well, at least that's true for 3.4.
Instead the reload function from the importlib module should be used:
https://docs.python.org/3/library/importlib.html#importlib.reload
But be aware that this library had some API-changes with the last two minor versions.

If you want to import a specific function or class from a module, you can do this:
import importlib
import sys
importlib.reload(sys.modules['my_module'])
from my_module import my_function

Another small point: If you used the import some_module as sm syntax, then you have to re-load the module with its aliased name (sm in this example):
>>> import some_module as sm
...
>>> import importlib
>>> importlib.reload(some_module) # raises "NameError: name 'some_module' is not defined"
>>> importlib.reload(sm) # works

Although the provided answers do work for a specific module, they won't reload submodules, as noted in This answer:
If a module imports objects from another module using from ... import ..., calling reload() for the other module does not redefine the objects imported from it — one way around this is to re-execute the from statement, another is to use import and qualified names (module.*name*) instead.
However, if using the __all__ variable to define the public API, it is possible to automatically reload all publicly available modules:
# Python >= 3.5
import importlib
import types
def walk_reload(module: types.ModuleType) -> None:
if hasattr(module, "__all__"):
for submodule_name in module.__all__:
walk_reload(getattr(module, submodule_name))
importlib.reload(module)
walk_reload(my_module)
The caveats noted in the previous answer are still valid though. Notably, modifying a submodule that is not part of the public API as described by the __all__ variable won't be affected by a reload using this function. Similarly, removing an element of a submodule won't be reflected by a reload.

import sys
del sys.modules['module_name']
import module_name

How does importing a function from a module work in Python?

I have a module some_module.py which contains the following code:
def testf():
print(os.listdir())
Now, in a file named test.py, I have this code:
import os
from some_module import testf
testf()
But executing test.py gives me NameError: name 'os' is not defined. I've already imported os in test.py, and testf is in the namespace of test.py. So why does this error occur?

import is not the same as including the content of the file as if you had typed it directly in place of the import statement. You might think it works this way if you're coming from a C background, where the #include preprocessor directive does this, but Python is different.
The import statement in Python reads the content of the file being imported and evaluates it in its own separate context - so, in your example, the code in some_module.py has no access to or knowledge of anything that exists in test.py or any other file. It starts with a "blank slate", so to speak. If some_module.py's code wants to access the os module, you have to import it at the top of some_module.py.
When a module is imported in Python, it becomes an object. That is, when you write
import some_module
one of the first things Python does is to create a new object of type module to represent the module being imported. As the interpreter goes through the code in some_module.py, it assigns any variables, functions, classes, etc. that are defined in that file to be attributes of this new module object. So in your example, the module object will have one attribute, testf. When the code in the function testf wants to access the variable os, it looks in the function itself (local scope) and sees that os is not defined there, so it then looks at the attributes of the module object which testf belongs to (this is the "global" scope, although it's not truly global). In your example, it will not see os there, so you get an error. If you add
import os
to some_module.py, then that will create an attribute of the module under the name os, and your code will find what it needs to.
You may also be interested in some other answers I've written that may help you understand Python's import statement:
Why import when you need to use the full name?
Does Python import statement also import dependencies automatically?

The name testf is in the namespace of test. The contents of the testf function are still in some_module, and don't have access to anything in test.
If you have code that needs a module, you need to import that module in the same file where that code is. Importing a module only imports it into the one file where you import it. (Multiple imports of the same module, in different files, won't incur a meaningful performance penalty; the actual loading of the module only happens once, and later imports of the same module just get a reference to the already-imported module.)

Importing a module adds its name as an attribute of the current scope. Since different modules have independent scopes, any code in some_module cannot use names in __main__ (the executed script) without having imported it first.

Python - How can you use a module's alias to import its submodules?

I have a long module name and I want to avoid having to type it all over many times in my document. I can simply do import long_ass_module_name as lamn and call it that way. However, this module has many submodules that I wish to import and use as well.
In this case I won't be able to write import lamn.sub_module_1 because python import does not recognize this alias I made for my long_ass_module_name. How can I achieve this?
Should I simply automatically import all submodules in my main module's __init__.py?

An aliased object still changes when you import submodules,
import my_long_module_name as mlmn
import my_long_module_name.submodule
mlmn.submodule.function()
The import statement always takes the full name of the module. The module is just an object, and importing a submodule will add an attribute to that object.

This (highly unrecommendable) way of importing all the members of an object to the current namespace works by looking up the vars() dictionary:
import my_bad_ass_long_module.bafd as b
# get __dict__ of current namespace
myn = vars()
for k,v in vars(b).items():
# populate this namespace with the all the members of the b namespace (overwriting!)
myn[k] = v

__builtin__ module in Python

If I have a module Test and if I need to list all the functions in them, I do this:
import Test
dir(Test)
Unless I import the module I won't be able to use the functions defined in them.
But all the functions in __builtin__ module can be used without importing. But without import __builtin__ I am not able to do a dir(__builtin__). Does that mean we use the functions without importing the entire module?
from __builtin__ import zip
Is it something like the above? But if I do del zip, I get
NameError: name 'zip' is not defined
Can anyone please explain this behavior?

As explained in the Python language docs, names in Python are resolved by first looking them up in the local scope, then in any enclosing local scope, then in the module-level scope and finally in the namespace of the built-ins. So built-ins are somehow special-cased. They are not imported in your module's scope, but if a name is not found anywhere else, Python will look it up in the scope __builtin__.
Note that you can access the contents of this scope without importing it. A portable way to do this is
import sys
print(dir(sys.modules["__builtin__"]))
In CPython, this also works
print(dir(__builtins__))
but this is considered an implementation detail and might not be available for other Python implementations or future versions.

I'm by no means knowledgeable about python, but maybe dir(__builtins__), with an "s", is what you're after?
Works for me on plain Python 3.1.

when python interpreter start, it will by default execute something like
from __builtin__ import *
which allows you to use all the functions/attributes defined inside __builtin__ module
However to use __builtin__ symbol itself, you need to do
import __builtin__
this is how import statement syntax works.

Having to evaluate a string to access a class from a module

I've loaded one of my modules <module my_modules.mymodule from .../my_modules/mymodule.pyc> with __import__.
Now I'm having the module saved in a variable, but I'd like to create an instance of the class mymodule. Thing is - I've gotten the module name passed as string into my script.
So I've got a variable containing the module, and I've got the module name but as string.
variable_containing_module.string_variable_with_correct_classname() doesn't work. Because it says there is no such thing in the module as "string_variable_with_correct_classname" - because it doesn't evaluate the string name. How can I do so?

Your problem is that __import__ is designed for use by the import internals, not really for direct usage. One symptom of this is that when importing a module from inside a package, the top-level package is returned rather than the module itself.
There are two ways to deal with this. The preferred way is to use importlib.import_module() instead of using __import__ directly.
If you're on an older version of Python that doesn't provide importlib, then you can create your own helper function:
import sys
def import_module(module_name):
__import__(module_name)
return sys.modules[module_name]
Also see http://bugs.python.org/issue9254