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pythonimportpathpython-import
PublicMutiny
PublicMutiny

Reputation: 15

How do I access a module using a string variable as a location?

I have a string variable x, and want to use input to call a module in a subfolder, as shown below. How can I use this string as part of the path?

x = input()

from subfolder.x import y

My code is run from a parent folder 'main.py' and uses the line:

os.chdir(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))

to set the file path.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 634

Answers (2)

Daweo
Daweo

Reputation: 36390

If you need to dynamically import, take look at importlib.import_module consider following simple example

import importlib
modulename = "html"
submodulename = "entities"
what = "html5"
module = importlib.import_module(modulename + "." + submodulename)
thing = getattr(module,what)
print(thing["gt;"])  # >

Upvotes: 1

Stijn B
Stijn B

Reputation: 360

According to Python documentation, here is how an import statement searches for the correct module or package to import:

When a module named spam is imported, the interpreter first searches for a built-in module with that name. If not found, it then searches for a file named spam.py in a list of directories given by the variable sys.path. sys.path is initialized from these locations:

  • The directory containing the input script (or the current directory when no file is specified).
  • PYTHONPATH (a list of directory names, with the same syntax as the shell variable PATH).
  • The installation-dependent default.

After initialization, Python programs can modify sys.path. The directory containing the script being run is placed at the beginning of the search path, ahead of the standard library path. This means that scripts in that directory will be loaded instead of modules of the same name in the library directory.

Source: Python 2 and 3

So you can use sys.path.append to append a location to the path, but once you close Python, sys.path will be set back to default.
Or you can add the desired location permannently to PYTHONPATH by adding

export PYTHONPATH="${PYTHONPATH}:/my/other/path"

in a startup script appropriate to whatever shell you're using (.bashrc for bash, for example)

Upvotes: 0

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