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Is there any way to upload my code in .py files and import them in colab code cells?

The other way I found is to create a local Jupyter notebook then upload it to Colab, is it the only way?

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17 Answers 17

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169

You can save it first, then import it.

from google.colab import files
src = list(files.upload().values())[0]
open('mylib.py','wb').write(src)
import mylib

Update (nov 2018): Now you can upload easily by

  • click at [>] to open the left pane
  • choose file tab
  • click [upload] and choose your [mylib.py]
  • import mylib

Update (oct 2019): If you don't want to upload every time, you can store it in S3 and mount it to Colab, as shown in this gist

Update (apr 2020): Now that you can mount your Google Drive automatically. It is easier to just copy it from Drive than upload it.

  • Store mylib.py in your Drive
  • Open a new Colab
  • Open the (left)side pane, select Files view
  • Click Mount Drive then Connect to Google Drive
  • Copy it by !cp drive/MyDrive/mylib.py .
  • import mylib
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11 Comments

@rsam Then try the second method. I tried it and it worked for me.
If you use the file tab method you have to repeat the upload each runtime
I now add the method to store it in S3, so you don't need to upload again.
@eswaraamirthans You forget the dot "." at the end.
It took me a while to find that I forgot to add the . at end of !cp drive/MyDrive/mylib.py .. Anyhow, this is a clean and nice solution. Solved my big problem. Thanks a ton. Moreover, I really appreciate for updating the answer with colab updating time to time. Really appreciate that.
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125

In case anyone else is interested to know how to import files/packages from gdrive inside a google colab. The following procedure worked for me:

1) Mount your google drive in google colab:

from google.colab import drive
drive.mount('/content/gdrive/')

2) Append the directory to your python path using sys:

import sys
sys.path.append('/content/gdrive/mypythondirectory')

Now you should be able to import stuff from that directory!

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2 Comments

Hello. Thank you. But I am looking for importing python files that depend on other files as well. Can I do that please?
from google.colab import drive import sys drive.mount('/content/gdrive') colab_notebooks_path = "gdrive/MyDrive/Colab Notebooks/" sys.path.append(colab_notebooks_path)
20
  1. You can upload local files to google colab by using upload() function in google.colab.files
  2. If you have files on github, then clone the repo using !git clone https://github.com/username/repo_name.git. Then just like in jupyter notebook load it using the magic function %load %load filename.py.
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2 Comments

The second method worked for me, I just had to add the name of the repo: %load repo_name/filename.py
@xyzjayne did you try importing it? I can load it fine, but can't use it as a module
16

Based on the answer by Korakot Chaovavanich, I created the function below to download all files needed within a Colab instance. 

from google.colab import files
def getLocalFiles():
    _files = files.upload()
    if len(_files) >0:
       for k,v in _files.items():
         open(k,'wb').write(v)
getLocalFiles()

You can then use the usual 'import' statement to import your local files in Colab. I hope this helps

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1 Comment

Thanks, I am a noobie and this is the only answer I understood how to implement and it works for me
7

We can do so.

import sys
import os

py_file_location = "/content/drive/My Drive"
sys.path.append(os.path.abspath(py_file_location))

Now you can import it as module in notebook for that location.

import whatever
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1 Comment

/content doesn't contain drive. So it is impossible to access my files
4

I face the same problem. After reading numerous posts, I would like to introduce the following solution I finally chose over many other methods (e.g. use urllib, httpimport, clone from GitHub, package the modules for installation, etc). The solution utilizes Google Drive API (official doc) for proper authorization.

Advantages:

  1. Easy and safe (no need for code to handle file operation exceptions and/or additional authorization)
  2. Module files safeguarded by Google account credentials (no one else can view/take/edit them)
  3. You control what to upload/access (you can change/revoke access anytime on a file-by-file basis)
  4. Everything in one place (no need to rely upon or manage another file hosting service)
  5. Freedom to rename/relocate module files (not path-based and won't break your/other's notebook code)

Steps:

  1. Save your .py module file to Google Drive - you should have that since you're already using Colab
  2. Right click on it, "Get shareable link", copy the part after "id=" - the file id assigned by Google Drive
  3. Add and run the following code snippets to your Colab notebook:
!pip install pydrive                             # Package to use Google Drive API - not installed in Colab VM by default
from pydrive.auth import GoogleAuth
from pydrive.drive import GoogleDrive

from google.colab import auth                    # Other necessary packages
from oauth2client.client import GoogleCredentials

auth.authenticate_user()                         # Follow prompt in the authorization process
gauth = GoogleAuth()
gauth.credentials = GoogleCredentials.get_application_default()

drive = GoogleDrive(gauth)
your_module = drive.CreateFile({"id": "your_module_file_id"})   # "your_module_file_id" is the part after "id=" in the shareable link
your_module.GetContentFile("your_module_file_name.py")          # Save the .py module file to Colab VM
import your_module_file_name                                    # Ready to import. Don't include".py" part, of course :)

Side note

Last but not least, I should credit the original contributor of this approach. That post might have some typo in the code as it triggered an error when I tried it. After more reading and troubleshooting my code snippets above worked (as of today on Colab VM OS: Linux 4.14.79).

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1 Comment

Umm when i try to call a function in the imported py file this code gives me error
3

Try this way:

I have a package named plant_seedlings. The package is stored in google drive. What I should do is to copy this package in /usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/.

!cp /content/drive/ai/plant_seedlings.tar.gz /usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/

!cd /usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/ && tar -xzf plant_seedlings.tar.gz

!cd /content

!python -m plant_seedlings
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2 Comments

Doesn't work for me. "/content" does not have "drive" subdirectory.
I am not sure of this answer but for your problem, you should first click Mount Drive button of google drive. Then drive folder will appear under content folder.
3

Below are the steps that worked for me

  1. Mount your google drive in google colab

    from google.colab import drive drive.mount('/content/drive')

  2. Insert the directory

    import sys sys.path.insert(0,’/content/drive/My Drive/ColabNotebooks’)

  3. check the current directory path

    %cd drive/MyDrive/ColabNotebooks %pwd

  4. Import your module or file

    import my_module

  5. If you get the following error 'Name Null is not defined' then do the following

    5.1 Download my_module.ipynb from colab as my_module.py file (file->Download .py)

    5.2 Upload the *.py file to drive/MyDrive/ColabNotebooks in Google drive

    5.3 import my_module will work now

Reference: https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/importing-your-own-python-module-or-python-file-into-colab-3e365f0a35ec

https://github.com/googlecolab/colabtools/issues/1358

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3

This is how I regularly do it:

  1. Save my module in the directory. Say MyFile.py in MyModules

  2. Define the location of my module:

    path_m = '/content/drive/MyDrive/Colab Notebooks/MyModules/'

  3. Then I add the path to sys.path:

    import sys

sys.path.insert(0,path_m)

  4. import the module into my Jupyter/Google Colab notebook.

    import MyFile

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Comments

2

Here's my process:

import sys 
sys.path.insert(0, '/content/drive/MyDrive/my_folder')
%cd /content/drive/MyDrive/my_folder
%pwd

Now, you can import the module from that path using import my_module easily

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Comments

1

You can upload those .py files to Google drive and allow Colab to use to them:

!mkdir -p drive
!google-drive-ocamlfuse drive

All your files and folders in root folder will be in drive.

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2 Comments

you first have to install the FUSE filesystem for google drive before you can do that
Actually mine works with only those lines above. Have you tried it?
0

It's Jun 2019. Make sure in the Python package's __init__.py all related files are imported in order. Push the code to Git or use this code.

for e.g,

from .Boxes import *
from .Circles import *
from .Rectangles import *
...

Don't use Package name in __init__.py file for importing the files.

in Google colab,

! rm -rf SorghumHeadDetection
! git clone https://github.com/user/amazing-repo-name/
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0

you can do this by mount your drive to colab and write some code to put the id of your python file you can find code here importing python file from drive to colab

    # Code to read file into colaboratory:
     !pip install -U -q PyDrive
from pydrive.auth import GoogleAuth
from pydrive.drive import GoogleDrive
from google.colab import auth
from oauth2client.client import GoogleCredentials


#Autheticate E-Mail ID
auth.authenticate_user()
gauth = GoogleAuth()
gauth.credentials = GoogleCredentials.get_application_default()
drive = GoogleDrive(gauth)

#2.1 Get the file
your_module = drive.CreateFile({"id": 'write your file id here'})  # "your_module_file_id" is the part after "id=" in the shareable link
your_module.GetContentFile("write the file name here")          # Save the .py module file to Colab VM

import file_name   
from file_name import anything    #as classes or functions from your file
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0

os.listdir can be used to view all files in the directory

from google.colab import drive
drive.mount("/content/drive")

import os
path="/content/drive/My Drive/Colab Notebooks"
os.chdir(path)
os.listdir(path)`
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Comments

0

In my case, the file I was trying to use was called client.py. This raised a conflict because there's already a library called client in /usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/.

I solved this by uploading the client.py file to the same Google Drive folder in which the Colab Notebook is saved in and change its name to something unique that doesn't appear in the dist-packages folder.

In my case, I changed the file name to dfsclient.py and then just imported it with

import dfsclient

Then I implemented Kamal's answer:

import sys 
sys.path.insert(0, '/content/drive/MyDrive/my_folder')
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0

I found a better way that make process automatic. first as said here need to mistune Python package. just install it by below command in Colab Code box:

!pip install --upgrade 'nbconvert>=7' 'mistune>=2'

next you need to connect your Google Drive to Colab by below Command:

from google.colab import drive
from pathlib import Path

# I need to some Paths in my Project.You could remove them
colab_root = Path('/content')
drive_path = colab_root.joinpath('drive')

#mount google drive if not mounted
if not drive_path.exists():
  drive.mount(str(drive_path))
drive_path = drive_path.joinpath('My Drive')
notebooks_root = drive_path.joinpath('Colab Notebooks')
print(notebooks_root.exists()) #for testing

next you need to run this command:

%cd {notebooks_root}
!jupyter nbconvert --to python '<module_name>.ipynb'

then you need to add Colabs path to your Python paths:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0,str(notebooks_root))

and now you could test your module is imported by below:

try:
    import <YourModule>
    print(f'module {<YourModule>.__name__} imported successfully')
except ModuleNotFoundError as e:
    raise ModuleNotFoundError(repr(e))
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3 Comments

Please endeavor to advise using current best practices: !pip install should be %pip install in Google Colab and modern Jupyter. The magic pip command variation was added in 2019 to insure the install occurs in the environment where the kernel is running that backs the active notebook. The exclamation point doesn't do that and can lead to issues. Google Colab had specifically made it so it wouldn't cause issues but finally added support for it recently to bring it more in line with the broader, true Jupyter Community. See more about the modern, magic %pip install ...
<continued> command here. The second paragraph here goes into more details about why the exclamation point may lead to issues in some context where Jupyter is used (not Colab, but knowing one command that works everywhere is better).
The original question asked about importing .py files. It looks like from '<module_name>.ipynb' what you wanted to import was in another notebook. You should mention that because those with a .py won't need that step. There are packages also to directly import from .ipynb files but I don't know how well they integrate with Google Colab as it isn't true Jupyter consistent with the broader community.
0

Full shortcut (faster than clone) to load specific folders (here src and locale) from github repository (here under tag v0.9.4):

!git -c init.defaultBranch=main init
!git sparse-checkout init
!git sparse-checkout set src locale
!git remote add origin https://github.com/halt9k/fluxfilter-extended.git
!git fetch --depth 1 origin v0.9.4
!git -c advice.detachedHead=false checkout FETCH_HEAD`

from src.helpers.py_helpers import init_logging
# from ... import ...
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