Question

I am trying to get a module to import, but only if an object of a specific class is called. For example:

class One(object):
    try:
        import OneHelper
    except ImportError:
        pass
    def __init__(self):
        # this function doesn't use OneHelper
        ...

    def blah(self):
        # this function does
        OneHelper.blah()

This causes a NameError: global name 'OneHelper' is not defined when the One.blah() function is called. So far the only thing I have found that works is importing the module into the actual functions that use it. So:

class One(object):
    def __init__(self):
        # this function doesn't use OneHelper
        ...

    def blah(self):
        try:
            import OneHelper
        except ImportError:
            pass
        # this function does
        OneHelper.blah()

But I don’t want to have to import the module in each function I want to use it in, I want it to be available to the whole class, but only if an instance of that class is instantiated. Apologies if I’m not being clear enough…

Answer 1

The import OneHelper works fine in the class, making it a class attribute. You can verify this with dir(One) after defining your class — there’s your OneHelper attribute. One.OneHelper is a reference to the module. In an instance, of course, you may access it as self.OneHelper from your methods. (You could also continue to access it as One.OneHelper.)