Question

I’m a little confused by the from import statements in Python. In particular, how I can import a class from a module that is within a package. For example, if I have a package named my package that has two modules (module 1 and module 2), how can I import a specific class from module 1 within module 2?

What I’m finding currently is that I need to (within module two) do the following…

from package import module1
module1.class1()

While this works, I’d much rather be able to access class1() directly from module 2 as it is not very readable . However, the following syntax doesn’t work…

from package import module1.class1

Also, it won’t let me simply go…

from module1 import class1

How does one import a class which is in a module within a package, directly within a separate module within that package?

Answer 1

You were on the right track:

from package.module1 import class1

If as you say you’re importing from within the same package, you can also do

from .module1 import class1

The . means “the position in the package hierarchy of the module doing the importing”. See the documentation for info.