Can t get Python to import from a different folder

Question

I can t seem to get Python to import a module in a subfolder  I get the error when I try to create an instance of the class from the imported module  but the import itself succeeds  Here is my directory structure   Server     -server py     -Models         --user py   Here s the contents of server py   from sys import path from os import getcwd path append getcwd        models    Yes  i m on windows print path import user  u user User    error on this line   And user py   class User Entity       using options tablename  users        username   Field String 15       password   Field String 64       email      Field String 50       status     Field Integer      created    Field DateTime    The error is  AttributeError   module  object has no attribute  User

User · Answer

The right way to import a module located on a parent folder, when you don't have a standard package structure, is:

import os, sys
CURRENT_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
sys.path.append(os.path.dirname(CURRENT_DIR))

(you can merge the last two lines but this way is easier to understand).

This solution is cross-platform and is general enough to need not modify in other circumstances.

User · Answer

You have to create   init   py on the Models subfolder  The file may be empty  It defines a package   Then you can do   from Models user import User   Read all about it in python tutorial  here   There is also a good article about file organization of python projects here

User · Answer

I believe you need to create a file called   init   py in the Models directory so that python treats it as a module   Then you can do   from Models user import User   You can include code in the   init   py  for instance initialization code that a few different classes need  or leave it blank   But it must be there

User · Answer

import user u user User    error on this line  Because of the lack of   init   mentioned above  you would expect an ImportError which would make the problem clearer  You don t get one because  user  is also an existing module in the standard library  Your import statement grabs that one and tries to find the User class inside it  that doesn t exist and only then do you get the error  It is generally a good idea to make your import absolute  import Server Models user  to avoid this kind of ambiguity  Indeed from Python 2 7  import user  won t look relative to the current module at all  If you really want relative imports  you can have them explicitly in Python 2 5 and up using the somewhat ugly syntax  from  user import User

User · Answer

import user u user User    error on this line  Because of the lack of   init   mentioned above  you would expect an ImportError which would make the problem clearer  You don t get one because  user  is also an existing module in the standard library  Your import statement grabs that one and tries to find the User class inside it  that doesn t exist and only then do you get the error  It is generally a good idea to make your import absolute  import Server Models user  to avoid this kind of ambiguity  Indeed from Python 2 7  import user  won t look relative to the current module at all  If you really want relative imports  you can have them explicitly in Python 2 5 and up using the somewhat ugly syntax  from  user import User

User · Answer

You re missing   init   py  From the Python tutorial      The   init   py files are required to   make Python treat the directories as   containing packages  this is done to   prevent directories with a common   name  such as string  from   unintentionally hiding valid modules   that occur later on the module search   path  In the simplest case      init   py can just be an empty file  but it can also execute initialization   code for the package or set the     all   variable  described later    Put an empty file named   init   py in your Models directory  and all should be golden

User · Answer

I believe you need to create a file called   init   py in the Models directory so that python treats it as a module   Then you can do   from Models user import User   You can include code in the   init   py  for instance initialization code that a few different classes need  or leave it blank   But it must be there

User · Answer

import user u user User    error on this line  Because of the lack of   init   mentioned above  you would expect an ImportError which would make the problem clearer  You don t get one because  user  is also an existing module in the standard library  Your import statement grabs that one and tries to find the User class inside it  that doesn t exist and only then do you get the error  It is generally a good idea to make your import absolute  import Server Models user  to avoid this kind of ambiguity  Indeed from Python 2 7  import user  won t look relative to the current module at all  If you really want relative imports  you can have them explicitly in Python 2 5 and up using the somewhat ugly syntax  from  user import User

User · Answer

how do you write out the parameters os path dirname     command   import os  sys CURRENT DIR   os path dirname os path abspath   file     sys path append os path dirname CURRENT DIR

User · Answer

The right way to import a module located on a parent folder, when you don't have a standard package structure, is:

import os, sys
CURRENT_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
sys.path.append(os.path.dirname(CURRENT_DIR))

(you can merge the last two lines but this way is easier to understand).

This solution is cross-platform and is general enough to need not modify in other circumstances.

User · Answer

My preferred way is to have   init   py on every directory that contains modules that get used by other modules  and in the entry point  override sys path as below   def get path ss     return os path join os path dirname   file     ss  sys path        get path  Server       get path  Models       This makes the files in specified directories visible for import  and I can import user from Server py

User · Answer

import user u user User    error on this line  Because of the lack of   init   mentioned above  you would expect an ImportError which would make the problem clearer  You don t get one because  user  is also an existing module in the standard library  Your import statement grabs that one and tries to find the User class inside it  that doesn t exist and only then do you get the error  It is generally a good idea to make your import absolute  import Server Models user  to avoid this kind of ambiguity  Indeed from Python 2 7  import user  won t look relative to the current module at all  If you really want relative imports  you can have them explicitly in Python 2 5 and up using the somewhat ugly syntax  from  user import User

User · Answer

You have to create   init   py on the Models subfolder  The file may be empty  It defines a package   Then you can do   from Models user import User   Read all about it in python tutorial  here   There is also a good article about file organization of python projects here

User · Answer

I believe you need to create a file called   init   py in the Models directory so that python treats it as a module   Then you can do   from Models user import User   You can include code in the   init   py  for instance initialization code that a few different classes need  or leave it blank   But it must be there

User · Answer

You have to create   init   py on the Models subfolder  The file may be empty  It defines a package   Then you can do   from Models user import User   Read all about it in python tutorial  here   There is also a good article about file organization of python projects here

User · Answer

After going through the answers given by these contributors above - Zorglub29  Tom  Mark  Aaron McMillin  lucasamaral  JoeyZhao  Kjeld Flarup  Procyclinsur  martin zaenker  tooty44 and debugging the issue that I was facing I found out a different use case due to which I was facing this issue  Hence adding my observations below for anybody s reference   In my code I had a cyclic import of classes  For example   src   -- utilities py  has Utilities class that uses Event class      -- consume utilities py  has Event class that uses Utilities class    -- tests        -- test consume utilities py  executes test cases that involves Event class    I got following error when I tried to execute python -m pytest tests test utilities py for executing UTs written in test utilities py   ImportError while importing test module   Users     src tests test utilities py   Hint  make sure your test modules packages have valid Python names  Traceback  tests test utilities py 1  in  lt module gt      from utilities import Utilities         E   ImportError  cannot import name  Utilities    The way I resolved the error was by re-factoring my code to move the functionality in cyclic import class so that I could remove the cyclic import of classes   Note  I have   init   py file in my  src  folder as well as  tests  folder and still was able to get rid of the  ImportError  just by re-factoring the code   Following stackoverflow link provides much more details on Circular dependency in Python

User · Answer

You re missing   init   py  From the Python tutorial      The   init   py files are required to   make Python treat the directories as   containing packages  this is done to   prevent directories with a common   name  such as string  from   unintentionally hiding valid modules   that occur later on the module search   path  In the simplest case      init   py can just be an empty file  but it can also execute initialization   code for the package or set the     all   variable  described later    Put an empty file named   init   py in your Models directory  and all should be golden

User · Answer

You have to create   init   py on the Models subfolder  The file may be empty  It defines a package   Then you can do   from Models user import User   Read all about it in python tutorial  here   There is also a good article about file organization of python projects here

User · Answer

how do you write out the parameters os path dirname     command   import os  sys CURRENT DIR   os path dirname os path abspath   file     sys path append os path dirname CURRENT DIR

User · Answer

I believe you need to create a file called   init   py in the Models directory so that python treats it as a module   Then you can do   from Models user import User   You can include code in the   init   py  for instance initialization code that a few different classes need  or leave it blank   But it must be there

User · Answer

After going through the answers given by these contributors above - Zorglub29  Tom  Mark  Aaron McMillin  lucasamaral  JoeyZhao  Kjeld Flarup  Procyclinsur  martin zaenker  tooty44 and debugging the issue that I was facing I found out a different use case due to which I was facing this issue  Hence adding my observations below for anybody s reference   In my code I had a cyclic import of classes  For example   src   -- utilities py  has Utilities class that uses Event class      -- consume utilities py  has Event class that uses Utilities class    -- tests        -- test consume utilities py  executes test cases that involves Event class    I got following error when I tried to execute python -m pytest tests test utilities py for executing UTs written in test utilities py   ImportError while importing test module   Users     src tests test utilities py   Hint  make sure your test modules packages have valid Python names  Traceback  tests test utilities py 1  in  lt module gt      from utilities import Utilities         E   ImportError  cannot import name  Utilities    The way I resolved the error was by re-factoring my code to move the functionality in cyclic import class so that I could remove the cyclic import of classes   Note  I have   init   py file in my  src  folder as well as  tests  folder and still was able to get rid of the  ImportError  just by re-factoring the code   Following stackoverflow link provides much more details on Circular dependency in Python

User · Answer

You re missing   init   py  From the Python tutorial      The   init   py files are required to   make Python treat the directories as   containing packages  this is done to   prevent directories with a common   name  such as string  from   unintentionally hiding valid modules   that occur later on the module search   path  In the simplest case      init   py can just be an empty file  but it can also execute initialization   code for the package or set the     all   variable  described later    Put an empty file named   init   py in your Models directory  and all should be golden

User · Answer

You re missing   init   py  From the Python tutorial      The   init   py files are required to   make Python treat the directories as   containing packages  this is done to   prevent directories with a common   name  such as string  from   unintentionally hiding valid modules   that occur later on the module search   path  In the simplest case      init   py can just be an empty file  but it can also execute initialization   code for the package or set the     all   variable  described later    Put an empty file named   init   py in your Models directory  and all should be golden

User · Answer

My preferred way is to have   init   py on every directory that contains modules that get used by other modules  and in the entry point  override sys path as below   def get path ss     return os path join os path dirname   file     ss  sys path        get path  Server       get path  Models       This makes the files in specified directories visible for import  and I can import user from Server py

[python] Can't get Python to import from a different folder

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