Strange Python import behaviour

Question

I have a problem with importing sub-packages. The packages structure I have is:

project/
    __init__.py
    defaults.py
    helpers/
       __init__.py
       misc.py

I need to use data from defaults.py all over the project, including helpers\misc.py, while in defaults.py I need to use some functions from helpers\misc.py. To solve the circular reference I'm trying to refer everything from project root, i.e. inside defaults.py I do

import project

project.helpers.somefunction()

However this doesn't work. It does work though when I import the function directly, like this:

from project.helpers import somefunction

somefunction()

But then I have a circular reference problem. I also have same problem everywhere inside the project subpackages, but in other places I can import subpackages directly and workaround the problem.

So, why it works if I import from subpackages, but doesn't when I refer to same subpackages starting from the root package?

PS: there are no files like helpers.py on the same level with helpers\ or inside it.

PPS: whole project package is added to sys.path via sys.path.insert(0, '<project_abs_path>')

PPPS: Python 2.7.3, Ubuntu 12.04

Daniel · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-15 18:30:07Z

1

import project.helpers

project.helpers.somefunction()

answered Oct 15, 2013 at 18:30

Daniel

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2 Comments

Daniel Over a year ago

Can you please explain why this helps?

Bakuriu Over a year ago

@Ophion when you import a package this executes the code in __init__.py. Period. It does not import subpackages. If you want to automatically import subpackages then you have to do so in the __init__.py of the package. A package is just like any other module. The only difference is its layout in the file-system(using name/__init__.py instead of name.py) and the ability to do relative imports.

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