Import a file from a subdirectory

Question

I have a file called tester py  located on  project    project has a subdirectory called lib  with a file called BoxTime py    project tester py  project lib BoxTime py   I want to import BoxTime from tester  I have tried this   import lib BoxTime   Which resulted   Traceback  most recent call last     File    tester py   line 3  in  lt module gt      import lib BoxTime ImportError  No module named lib BoxTime   Any ideas how to import BoxTime from the subdirectory   EDIT  The   init   py was the problem  but don t forget to refer to BoxTime as lib BoxTime  or use   import lib BoxTime as BT     BT bt function

User · Answer

Create a subdirectory named lib  Create an empty file named lib   init   py  In lib BoxTime py  write a function foo   like this   def foo        print  foo    In your client code in the directory above lib  write   from lib import BoxTime BoxTime foo    Run your client code  You will get   foo       Much later -- in linux  it would look like this     cd   tmp   mkdir lib   touch lib   init   py   cat  gt  lib BoxTime py  lt  lt  EOF heredoc gt  def foo    heredoc gt      print  foo   heredoc gt  EOF   tree lib lib  -- BoxTime py  --   init   py  0 directories  2 files   python  Python 2 7 6  default  Mar 22 2014  22 59 56    GCC 4 8 2  on linux2 Type  help    copyright    credits  or  license  for more information   gt  gt  gt  from lib import BoxTime  gt  gt  gt  BoxTime foo   foo

User · Answer

Take a look at the Packages documentation  Section 6 4  here  http   docs python org tutorial modules html  In short  you need to put a blank file named     init   py   in the  lib  directory

User · Answer

project tester py   project lib BoxTime py  create blank file   init   py down the line till you reach the file   project lib somefolder BoxTime py   lib -- needs has two items one   init   py and a directory named somefolder  somefolder has two items boxtime py and   init   py

User · Answer

I am writing this down because everyone seems to suggest that you have to create a lib directory  You don t need to name your sub-directory lib  You can name it anything provided you put an   init   py into it  You can do that by entering the following command in a linux shell    touch anything   init   py   So now you have this structure    ls anything    init   py mylib py    ls main py  Then you can import mylib into main py like this  from anything import mylib   mylib myfun    You can also import functions and classes like this  from anything mylib import MyClass from anything mylib import myfun  instance   MyClass   result   myfun    Any variable function or class you place inside   init   py can also be accessed  import anything  print anything myvar   Or like this  from anything import myvar  print myvar

User · Answer

Try import  lib BoxTime  For more information read about relative import in PEP 328

User · Answer

Create an empty file    init   py in subdirectory  lib  And add at the begin of main code  from   future   import absolute import    then  import lib BoxTime as BT     BT bt function     or better  from lib BoxTime import bt function     bt function

User · Answer

Just an addition to these answers   If you want to import all files from all subdirectories  you can add this to the root of your file   import sys  os sys path extend  f    name   for name in os listdir      if os path isdir name      And then you can simply import files from the subdirectories just as if these files are inside the current directory   Working example  If I have the following directory with subdirectories in my project        -- a py  -- b py  -- c py  -- subdirectory a         -- d py         -- e py  -- subdirectory b         -- f py  -- subdirectory c         -- g py  -- subdirectory d      -- h py   I can put the following code inside my a py file  import sys  os sys path extend  f    name   for name in os listdir      if os path isdir name       And then you can import files just as if these files are inside the current directory  import b import c import d import e import f import g import h   In other words  this code will abstract from which directory the file is coming from

User · Answer

try this   from lib import BoxTime

User · Answer

You can try inserting it in sys path   sys path insert 0     lib   import BoxTime

User · Answer

This basically covers all cases  make sure you have   init   py in relative path to your lib folder   import sys  os sys path append os path dirname os path realpath   file        quot  relative path to your lib folder quot   import someFileNameWhichIsInTheFolder     somefile foo     Example  You have in your project folder    root myproject app py  You have in another project folder    root anotherproject utils py  root anotherproject   init   py  You want to use  root anotherproject utils py and call foo function which is in it  So you write in app py  import sys  os sys path append os path dirname os path realpath   file        quot     anotherproject quot   import utils  utils foo

User · Answer

Does your lib directory contain a   init   py file   Python uses   init   py to determine if a directory is a module

[python] Import a file from a subdirectory?

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