Question

I would like to include data files with a Python package. Is the best place to put them inside the actual package as suggested here, i.e.

setup.py
src/
    mypkg/
        __init__.py
        module.py
        data/
            tables.dat
            spoons.dat
            forks.dat

or is there a better way to do this? What is the best way to retrieve a datafile from inside python? Should I use

mypkg.__path__ + 'data/tables.dat'

for example, or should I use

pkgutil.getdata('mypkg','tables.dat')

or again, is there another better way to do this?

Generally speaking, what is the current preferred way to deal with data inside Python packages?

Answer 1

pkgutil means you can load the data even if the package is installed in a ZIP file, so it’s preferable if you want to support that. Storing it in a data directory like that is fine, I do that all the time. 🙂