Question

To find a module’s path, I would like to use the following script:

import <module_name>
print <module_name>.__file__

It works.

However, I want to make it more flexible, to receive an argument to specify the module’s name.

If I name the script as searchModulePath.py, I want to run it with searchModulePath.py <some_module_name>.

Here is what I have tried:

#!usr/bin/python

import sys
print sys.argv
import sys.argv[1]
print sys.argv[1].__file__

But it doesn’t work:

  File "searchModulePath.py", line 5
    import sys.argv[1]
                   ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

And, the print statement in the 2nd line doesn’t print out anything, 🙁

Anything I missed here?

Answer 1

You can’t use variables in import statements, you should use the builtin __import__ in stead:

import sys
print sys.argv
module = __import__(sys.argv[1])
print module.__file__