Import files - Best practice

It is unbelievably annoying to do import in a python script.

Resource

• https://blog.finxter.com/python-how-to-import-modules-from-another-folder
• https://towardsdatascience.com/understanding-python-imports-init-py-and-pythonpath-once-and-for-all-4c5249ab6355
• https://peps.python.org/pep-0328/#rationale-for-relative-imports
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4209641/absolute-vs-explicit-relative-import-of-python-module
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16981921/relative-imports-in-python-3

Conclusion

• Use absolute import if possible, unless the path is too long.
• The entry point(which script will be executed) is critical

Example:

Let’s say we have below structure:

We want to access CONST_A ,which is defined in utils/module_share.py, from package_a/module_a.py. However, we will execute project_level.py, which import module_a.py.

The main code is as below (note how the CONST_A is imported in different files)

# src_project/project_level.py
from package_a.module_a import CONST_A

print(" CONST_A is: ", CONST_A)

# src_project/package_a/module_a.py
from utils.module_share import CONST_A

# src_project/utils/module_share.py
CONST_A = "123123"

However, if we import project_level.py in root_level.py, the import path everywhere will just fail.

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