Circular or cyclic imports in Python

Question

What will happen if two modules import each other   To generalize the problem  what about the cyclic imports in Python

User · Answer

I got an example here that struck me   foo py  import bar  class gX object       g   10   bar py  from foo import gX  o   gX     main py  import foo import bar  print  all done    At the command line    python main py  Traceback  most recent call last     File  m py   line 1  in  lt module gt      import foo   File   home xolve foo py   line 1  in  lt module gt      import bar   File   home xolve bar py   line 1  in  lt module gt      from foo import gX ImportError  cannot import name gX

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I solved the problem the following way  and it works well without any error   Consider two files a py and b py   I added this to a py and it worked    if   name         main             main      a py   import b y   2 def main        print   a out       print  b x   if   name         main         main      b py   import a print   b out   x   3   a y   The output I get is    gt  gt  gt  b out   gt  gt  gt  a out   gt  gt  gt  5

User · Answer

Ok  I think I have a pretty cool solution  Let s say you have file a and file b  You have a def or a class in file b that you want to use in module a  but you have something else  either a def  class  or variable from file a that you need in your definition or class in file b   What you can do is  at the bottom of file a  after calling the function or class in file a that is needed in file b  but before calling the function or class from file b that you need for file a  say import b Then  and here is the key part  in all of the definitions or classes in file b that need the def or class from file a  let s call it CLASS   you say from a import CLASS  This works because you can import file b without Python executing any of the import statements in file b  and thus you elude any circular imports   For example   File a   class A object         def   init   self  name             self name   name  CLASS   A  me    import b  go   B 6   go dostuff   File b   class B object         def   init   self  number             self number   number       def dostuff self             from a import CLASS           print  Hello     CLASS name          str number      is an interesting number     Voila

User · Answer

There was a really good discussion on this over at comp lang python last year  It answers your question pretty thoroughly      Imports are pretty straightforward really  Just remember the following        import  and  from xxx import yyy  are executable statements  They execute   when the running program reaches that line       If a module is not in sys modules  then an import creates the new module   entry in sys modules and then executes the code in the module  It does not   return control to the calling module until the execution has completed       If a module does exist in sys modules then an import simply returns that   module whether or not it has completed executing  That is the reason why   cyclic imports may return modules which appear to be partly empty       Finally  the executing script runs in a module named   main    importing   the script under its own name will create a new module unrelated to     main         Take that lot together and you shouldn t get any surprises when importing   modules

User · Answer

If you do import foo  inside bar py  and import bar  inside foo py   it will work fine  By the time anything actually runs  both modules will be fully loaded and will have references to each other  The problem is when instead you do from foo import abc  inside bar py  and from bar import xyz  inside foo py   Because now each module requires the other module to already be imported  so that the name we are importing exists  before it can be imported

User · Answer

I completely agree with pythoneer s answer here  But I have stumbled on some code that was flawed with circular imports and caused issues when trying to add unit tests  So to quickly patch it without changing everything you can resolve the issue by doing a dynamic import     Hack to import something without circular import issue def load module name          Load module using imp find module        names   name split          path   None     for name in names          f  path  info   imp find module name  path          path    path      return imp load module name  f  path 0   info  constants   load module  app constants     Again  this isn t a permanent fix but may help someone that wants to fix an import error without changing too much of the code   Cheers

User · Answer

Suppose you are running a test python file named request py In request py  you write import request  so this also most likely a circular import  Solution  Just change your test file to another name such as aaa py  other than request py  Do not use names that are already used by other libs

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As other answers describe this pattern is acceptable in python   def dostuff self        from foo import bar            Which will avoid the execution of the import statement when the file is imported by other modules  Only if there is a logical circular dependency  this will fail   Most Circular Imports are not actually logical circular imports but rather raise ImportError errors  because of the way import   evaluates top level statements of the entire file when called   These ImportErrors can almost always be avoided  if you positively want your imports on top   Consider this circular import   App A    profiles serializers py  from images serializers import SimplifiedImageSerializer  class SimplifiedProfileSerializer serializers Serializer       name   serializers CharField    class ProfileSerializer SimplifiedProfileSerializer       recent images   SimplifiedImageSerializer many True    App B    images serializers py  from profiles serializers import SimplifiedProfileSerializer  class SimplifiedImageSerializer serializers Serializer       title   serializers CharField    class ImageSerializer SimplifiedImageSerializer       profile   SimplifiedProfileSerializer     From David Beazleys excellent talk Modules and Packages  Live and Let Die  - PyCon 2015  1 54 00  here is a way to deal with circular imports in python   try      from images serializers import SimplifiedImageSerializer except ImportError      import sys     SimplifiedImageSerializer   sys modules   package       SimplifiedImageSerializer     This tries to import SimplifiedImageSerializer and if ImportError is raised  because it already is imported  it will pull it from the importcache   PS  You have to read this entire post in David Beazley s voice

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Module a py    import b print  This is from module a     Module b py  import a print  This is from module b     Running  Module a  will output    gt  gt  gt    This is from module a   This is from module b   This is from module a   gt  gt  gt     It output this 3 lines while it was supposed to output infinitival because of circular importing  What happens line by line while running Module a  is listed here    The first line is import b  so it will visit module b The first line at module b is import a  so it will visit module a The first line at module a is import b but note that this line won t be executed again anymore  because every file in python execute an import line just for once  it does not matter where or when it is executed  so it will pass to the next line and print  This is from module a   After finish visiting whole module a from module b  we are still at module b  so the next line will print  This is from module b  Module b lines are executed completely  so we will go back to module a where we started module b  import b line have been executed already and won t be executed again  the next line will print  This is from module a  and program will be finished

User · Answer

Circular imports can be confusing because import does two things    it executes imported module code adds imported module to importing module global symbol table   The former is done only once  while the latter at each import statement  Circular import creates situation when importing module uses imported one with partially executed code  In consequence it will not see objects created after import statement  Below code sample demonstrates it   Circular imports are not the ultimate evil to be avoided at all cost  In some frameworks like Flask they are quite natural and tweaking your code to eliminate them does not make the code better    main py  print  import b  import b print  a in globals       format  a  in globals    print  import a  import a print  a in globals       format  a  in globals    if   name         main         print  imports done      print  b has y     a is b a     format hasattr b   y    a is b a    b by  print  b in    name         format   name    x   3 print  b imports a  import a y   5 print  b out    a py  print  a in    name         format   name    print  a imports b  import b print  b has x     format hasattr b   x    print  b has y     format hasattr b   y    print  a out    python main py output with comments  import b b in    name     b      b code execution started b imports a a in    name     a      a code execution started a imports b             b code execution is already in progress b has x True b has y False           b defines y after a import  a out b out a in globals   False    import only adds a to main global symbol table  import a a in globals   True imports done b has y True  a is b a True   all b objects are available

User · Answer

There are a lot of great answers here  While there are usually quick solutions to the problem  some of which feel more pythonic than others  if you have the luxury of doing some refactoring  another approach is to analyze the organization of your code  and try to remove the circular dependency  You may find  for example  that you have   File a py  from b import B  class A       staticmethod     def save result result           print  save the result         staticmethod     def do something a ish param           A save result A use param like a would param         staticmethod     def do something related to b param           B do something b ish param    File b py  from a import A  class B       staticmethod     def do something b ish param           A save result B use param like b would param     In this case  just moving one static method to a separate file  say c py   File c py  def save result result       print  save the result     will allow removing the save result method from A  and thus allow removing the import of A from a in b   Refactored File a py  from b import B from c import save result  class A       staticmethod     def do something a ish param           A save result A use param like a would param         staticmethod     def do something related to b param           B do something b ish param    Refactored File b py  from c import save result  class B       staticmethod     def do something b ish param           save result B use param like b would param     In summary  if you have a tool  e g  pylint or PyCharm  that reports on methods that can be static  just throwing a staticmethod decorator on them might not be the best way to silence the warning  Even though the method seems related to the class  it might be better to separate it out  especially if you have several closely related modules that might need the same functionality and you intend to practice DRY principles

User · Answer

Cyclic imports terminate  but you need to be careful not to use the cyclically-imported modules during module initialization   Consider the following files   a py   print  a in  import sys print  b imported   s      b  in sys modules    import b print  a out    b py   print  b in  import a print  b out  x   3   If you execute a py  you ll get the following     python a py a in b imported  False b in a in b imported  True a out b out a out   On the second import of b py  in the second a in   the Python interpreter does not import b again  because it already exists in the module dict   If you try to access b x from a during module initialization  you will get an AttributeError   Append the following line to a py   print b x   Then  the output is     python a py a in                     b imported  False b in a in b imported  True a out Traceback  most recent call last     File  a py   line 4  in  lt module gt      import b   File   home shlomme tmp x b py   line 2  in  lt module gt      import a  File   home shlomme tmp x a py   line 7  in  lt module gt      print b x AttributeError   module  object has no attribute  x    This is because modules are executed on import and at the time b x is accessed  the line x   3 has not be executed yet  which will only happen after b out

[python] Circular (or cyclic) imports in Python

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