How do I import a module(python file) that resides in the parent directory?
Both directories have a __init__.py file in them but I still cannot import a file from the parent directory?
In this folder layout, Script B is attempting to import Script A:
Folder A:
__init__.py
Script A:
Folder B:
__init__.py
Script B(attempting to import Script A)
The following code in Script B doesn't work:
import ../scriptA.py # I get a compile error saying the "." is invalid
You don't import scripts in Python you import modules. Some python modules are also scripts that you can run directly (they do some useful work at a module-level).
In general it is preferable to use absolute imports rather than relative imports.
toplevel_package/
├── __init__.py
├── moduleA.py
└── subpackage
├── __init__.py
└── moduleB.py
In moduleB:
from toplevel_package import moduleA
If you'd like to run moduleB.py as a script then make sure that parent directory for toplevel_package is in your sys.path.
sys.path.append(path_to_parent)» shouldn't be an answer to how to fix «"import ../scriptA.py # I get a compile error saying the "." is invalid"» question. There are cases where changing sys.path could be useful e.g., if python itself'd done it or a 3-party module that handles all corner cases correctly done it e.g., import autopath; autopath.add_toplevel_to_syspath() that automatically adds parent directory of toplevel_package to sys.path to allow a direct internal module execution as a script (or in a REPL) from any directory without proper PYTHONPATH or (virtualenv) install.
sys.path so that we can run submodules also as main files or scripts? I have a project where I really need to run scripts both as main or as modules, that is imported, but I need to do tons of hacks adding paths to sys.path to make them work in both cases. Would work in a virtualenv or using setuptools work somehow? I am really struggling with this...
From the docs:
from .. import scriptA
You can do this in packages, but not in scripts you run directly. From the link above:
Note that both explicit and implicit relative imports are based on the name of the current module. Since the name of the main module is always "__main__", modules intended for use as the main module of a Python application should always use absolute imports.
If you create a script that imports A.B.B, you won't receive the ValueError.
If you want to run the script directly, you can:
PYTHONPATH).sys.path in the your script.Then:
import module_you_wanted
I struggled same kind of issue, and published syspend module on PyPI https://pypi.org/project/syspend/ This searches parent directories which have specific named file, and calls sys.path.append(directory: which has SYSPEND_ROOT file).
Folder A:
__init__.py
Script A:
Folder B:
__init__.py
Script B(attempting to import Script A)
SYSPEND_ROOT
In your case, please put SYSPEND_ROOT file. Empty file is OK. In your ScriptB.py
import syspend
import ScriptA
if __name__ == "__main__":
ScriptA.method()
