Question

I don’t understand the following from pep-0404

In Python 3, implicit relative imports within packages are no longer
available – only absolute imports and explicit relative imports are
supported. In addition, star imports (e.g. from x import *) are only
permitted in module level code.

What is a relative import?
In what other places star import was allowed in python2?
Please explain with examples.

Answer 1

Relative import happens whenever you are importing a package relative to the current script/package.

Consider the following tree for example:

mypkg
├── base.py
└── derived.py

Now, your derived.py requires something from base.py. In Python 2, you could do it like this (in derived.py):

from base import BaseThing

Python 3 no longer supports that since it’s not explicit whether you want the ‘relative’ or ‘absolute’ base. In other words, if there was a Python package named base installed in the system, you’d get the wrong one.

Instead it requires you to use explicit imports which explicitly specify location of a module on a path-alike basis. Your derived.py would look like:

from .base import BaseThing

The leading . says ‘import base from module directory’; in other words, .base maps to ./base.py.

Similarly, there is .. prefix which goes up the directory hierarchy like ../ (with ..mod mapping to ../mod.py), and then ... which goes two levels up (../../mod.py) and so on.

Please however note that the relative paths listed above were relative to directory where current module (derived.py) resides in, not the current working directory.

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@BrenBarn has already explained the star import case. For completeness, I will have to say the same ;).

For example, you need to use a few math functions but you use them only in a single function. In Python 2 you were permitted to be semi-lazy:

def sin_degrees(x):
    from math import *
    return sin(degrees(x))

Note that it already triggers a warning in Python 2:

a.py:1: SyntaxWarning: import * only allowed at module level
  def sin_degrees(x):

In modern Python 2 code you should and in Python 3 you have to do either:

def sin_degrees(x):
    from math import sin, degrees
    return sin(degrees(x))

or:

from math import *

def sin_degrees(x):
    return sin(degrees(x))