How to use the Python package inside a project

Question

I have the following directory structure:

├── DynamicProgramming
│   ├── 0-1_kp_problem.py
│   ├── b.py
│   ├── largest_contigous_subarray.py
│   ├── longest_common_substring.py
│   ├── min_change_for_given_money.py
│   ├── optimal_matrix_chain.py
│   ├── Readme.md
│   └── wis.py
├── helper
│   ├── a.py
│   └── __init__.py
└── Readme.md

The helper directory contains the library functions which will be used all over the code. How can I import the helper package from the scripts inside DynamicProgramming without adding it to the path?

Edit=>

I cannot move helper directory inside dynamicProgramming because there can be more than one directories using it.

Jody Boucher · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-03 17:19:51Z

3

You could use something like:

from ..helper import a

See python docs on packages.

answered May 3, 2016 at 17:19

Jody Boucher

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2 Comments

freeza Over a year ago

Yeah but I can only do that if the file I am using it in is a package itself

Jody Boucher Over a year ago

It sounds like helper directory contains some common functionality that will be used from other places besides DynamicProgramming. In that case perhaps you should think about adding 'helper' directory to PYTHONPATH. If you are using virtual environments you could easily add/remove the helper directory to PYTHONPATH when the virtual environment is activated/deactivated. Then you could simply use an absolute path in your import.

Jan Vlcinsky · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-03 17:17:47Z

If you run your code from project root folder, you are likely to succeed with import helper or import helper.a. If not, you would have to add current directory to PYTHONPATH:

$ export PYTHONPATH="."

better use project `setup.py`

Instead of playing with PYTHONPATH (what can be tricky business sometime), you shall create your project as python package.

You add setup.py into your project root, specify attributes of that package and build it from it.

setup.py can define multiple packages at once, but generally it is more often using only one. For this purpose it would be better moving the helper package into DynamicProgramming structure and import it from there.

Search for setup.py python packaging tutorials, it requires some study, but it will pay back.

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better use project `setup.py`