3.10.

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6. Modules
If you quit from the Python interpreter and enter it again, the definitions you
have made (functions and variables) are lost.
Therefore, if you want to write a
somewhat longer program, you are better off using a text editor to prepare the
input for the
interpreter and running it with that file as input instead. This
is known as creating a script. As your program gets longer, you
may want to
split it into several files for easier maintenance. You may also want to use a
handy function that you’ve written
in several programs without copying its
definition into each program.

To support this, Python has a way to put definitions in a file and use them in a
script or in an interactive instance of the
interpreter. Such a file is called a
module; definitions from a module can be imported into other modules or into
the main
module (the collection of variables that you have access to in a
script executed at the top level and in calculator mode).

A module is a file containing Python definitions and statements. The file name
is the module name with the suffix
appended. Within a module, the
module’s name (as a string) is available as the value of the global variable
. For instance,
use your favorite text editor to create a file
called in the current directory with the following contents: .py __name__ fibo.py

# Fibonacci numbers module

def fib(n): # write Fibonacci series up to n

a, b = 0, 1

while a < n:

print(a, end=' ')

a, b = b, a+b

print()

def fib2(n): # return Fibonacci series up to n

result = []

a, b = 0, 1

while a < n:

result.append(a)

a, b = b, a+b

return result

Now enter the Python interpreter and import this module with the following
command:

>>> import fibo

>>>

This does not enter the names of the functions defined in directly in
the current symbol table; it only enters the module
name there. Using
the module name you can access the functions: fibo fibo

>>> fibo.fib(1000)
>>>
0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 610 987

>>> fibo.fib2(100)

[0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89]

>>> fibo.__name__

'fibo'

If you intend to use a function often you can assign it to a local name:

>>> fib = fibo.fib

>>>
>>> fib(500)

0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377

6.1. More on Modules

A module can contain executable statements as well as function definitions.
These statements are intended to initialize the
module. They are executed only
the first time the module name is encountered in an import statement. [1]
(They are also
run if the file is executed as a script.)
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Each module has its own private symbol table, which is used as the global symbol
table by all functions defined in the
module. Thus, the author of a module can
use global variables in the module without worrying about accidental clashes
with a user’s global variables. On the other hand, if you know what you are
doing you can touch a module’s global
variables with the same notation used to
refer to its functions, . modname.itemname

Modules can import other modules. It is customary but not required to place all
import statements at the beginning of a
module (or script, for that
matter). The imported module names are placed in the importing module’s global
symbol table.

There is a variant of the import statement that imports names from a

module directly into the importing module’s symbol
table. For example:

>>> from fibo import fib, fib2

>>>
>>> fib(500)

0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377

This does not introduce the module name from which the imports are taken in the
local symbol table (so in the example, is
not defined). fibo

There is even a variant to import all names that a module defines:

>>> from fibo import *

>>>
>>> fib(500)

0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377

This imports all names except those beginning with an underscore ().
In most cases Python programmers do not use this
facility since it introduces
an unknown set of names into the interpreter, possibly hiding some things
you have already
defined. _

Note that in general the practice of importing from a module or package is

frowned upon, since it often causes poorly
readable code. However, it is okay to
use it to save typing in interactive sessions. *

If the module name is followed by , then the name

following is bound directly to the imported module. as as

>>> import fibo as fib

>>>
>>> fib.fib(500)

0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377

This is effectively importing the module in the same way that will do, with the only difference of it being available as
. import fibo fib

It can also be used when utilising from with similar effects:

>>> from fibo import fib as fibonacci

>>>
>>> fibonacci(500)

0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377

Note:
For efficiency reasons, each module is only imported once per interpreter
session. Therefore, if you change your
modules, you must restart the
interpreter – or, if it’s just one module you want to test interactively,
use
importlib.reload() , e.g. import importlib;
importlib.reload(modulename) .

6.1.1. Executing modules as scripts

When you run a Python module with

python fibo.py <arguments>

the code in the module will be executed, just as if you imported it, but with
the set to . That means that by adding this code
at
the end of your module: __name__ "__main__"
 if __name__ == "__main__":

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import sys

fib(int(sys.argv[1]))

you can make the file usable as a script as well as an importable module,
because the code that parses the command line
only runs if the module is
executed as the “main” file:

$ python fibo.py 50

0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34

If the module is imported, the code is not run:

>>> import fibo

>>>
>>>

This is often used either to provide a convenient user interface to a module, or

for testing purposes (running the module as
a script executes a test suite).

6.1.2. The Module Search Path

When a module named is imported, the interpreter first searches for

a built-in module with that name. If not found, it then
searches for a file
named in a list of directories given by the variable
sys.path . sys.path is initialized from these
locations: spam spam.py

The directory containing the input script (or the current directory when no
file is specified).
PYTHONPATH (a list of directory names, with the same syntax as the
shell variable ). PATH
The installation-dependent default (by convention including a
directory, handled by the site module). site-packages

Note:
On file systems which support symlinks, the directory containing the input
script is calculated after the symlink is
followed. In other words the
directory containing the symlink is not added to the module search path.

After initialization, Python programs can modify sys.path . The

directory containing the script being run is placed at the
beginning of the
search path, ahead of the standard library path. This means that scripts in that
directory will be loaded
instead of modules of the same name in the library
directory. This is an error unless the replacement is intended. See
section
Standard Modules for more information.

6.1.3. “Compiled” Python files

To speed up loading modules, Python caches the compiled version of each module
in the directory under the name ,
where the version encodes the format of the compiled file; it generally contains
the Python version number. For example,
in CPython release 3.3 the compiled
version of spam.py would be cached as . This
naming convention allows compiled
modules from different releases and different
versions of Python to
coexist. __pycache__ module.version.pyc __pycache__/spam.cpython-33.pyc

Python checks the modification date of the source against the compiled version
to see if it’s out of date and needs to be
recompiled. This is a completely
automatic process. Also, the compiled modules are platform-independent, so the
same
library can be shared among systems with different architectures.

Python does not check the cache in two circumstances. First, it always
recompiles and does not store the result for the
module that’s loaded directly
from the command line. Second, it does not check the cache if there is no
source module. To
support a non-source (compiled only) distribution, the
compiled module must be in the source directory, and there must not
be a source
module.

Some tips for experts:

You can use the -O or -OO switches on the Python command

to reduce the size of a compiled module. The switch
removes assert
statements, the switch removes both assert statements and __doc__
strings. Since some programs
may rely on having these available, you should
only use this option if you know what you’re doing. “Optimized” modules
have
an tag and are usually smaller. Future releases may
change the effects of optimization. -O -OO opt-
 A program doesn’t run any faster when it is read from a file than when it is read from a file; the only thing that’s faster
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about files is the speed with which they are loaded. .pyc .py .pyc
The module compileall can create .pyc files for all modules in a
directory.
There is more detail on this process, including a flow chart of the
decisions, in PEP 3147.

6.2. Standard Modules

Python comes with a library of standard modules, described in a separate
document, the Python Library Reference
(“Library Reference” hereafter). Some
modules are built into the interpreter; these provide access to operations that
are
not part of the core of the language but are nevertheless built in, either
for efficiency or to provide access to operating
system primitives such as
system calls. The set of such modules is a configuration option which also
depends on the
underlying platform. For example, the winreg module is only
provided on Windows systems. One particular module
deserves some attention:
sys , which is built into every Python interpreter. The variables
and define the strings used as
primary and secondary
prompts: sys.ps1 sys.ps2

>>> import sys

>>>
>>> sys.ps1

'>>> '

>>> sys.ps2

'... '

>>> sys.ps1 = 'C> '

C> print('Yuck!')

Yuck!

C>

These two variables are only defined if the interpreter is in interactive mode.

The variable is a list of strings that determines the interpreter’s

search path for modules. It is initialized to a default path
taken from the
environment variable PYTHONPATH , or from a built-in default if
PYTHONPATH is not set. You can modify it using
standard list
operations: sys.path

>>> import sys

>>>
>>> sys.path.append('/ufs/guido/lib/python')

6.3. The dir() Function

The built-in function dir() is used to find out which names a module
defines. It returns a sorted list of strings:

>>> import fibo, sys

>>>
>>> dir(fibo)

['__name__', 'fib', 'fib2']

>>> dir(sys)

['__breakpointhook__', '__displayhook__', '__doc__', '__excepthook__',

'__interactivehook__', '__loader__', '__name__', '__package__', '__spec__',

'__stderr__', '__stdin__', '__stdout__', '__unraisablehook__',

'_clear_type_cache', '_current_frames', '_debugmallocstats', '_framework',

'_getframe', '_git', '_home', '_xoptions', 'abiflags', 'addaudithook',

'api_version', 'argv', 'audit', 'base_exec_prefix', 'base_prefix',

'breakpointhook', 'builtin_module_names', 'byteorder', 'call_tracing',

'callstats', 'copyright', 'displayhook', 'dont_write_bytecode', 'exc_info',

'excepthook', 'exec_prefix', 'executable', 'exit', 'flags', 'float_info',

'float_repr_style', 'get_asyncgen_hooks', 'get_coroutine_origin_tracking_depth',

'getallocatedblocks', 'getdefaultencoding', 'getdlopenflags',

'getfilesystemencodeerrors', 'getfilesystemencoding', 'getprofile',

'getrecursionlimit', 'getrefcount', 'getsizeof', 'getswitchinterval',

'gettrace', 'hash_info', 'hexversion', 'implementation', 'int_info',

'intern', 'is_finalizing', 'last_traceback', 'last_type', 'last_value',

'maxsize', 'maxunicode', 'meta_path', 'modules', 'path', 'path_hooks',

'path_importer_cache', 'platform', 'prefix', 'ps1', 'ps2', 'pycache_prefix',

'set_asyncgen_hooks', 'set_coroutine_origin_tracking_depth', 'setdlopenflags',

'setprofile', 'setrecursionlimit', 'setswitchinterval', 'settrace', 'stderr',

 'stdin', 'stdout', 'thread_info', 'unraisablehook', 'version', 'version_info',

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'warnoptions']
Ir

Without arguments, dir() lists the names you have defined currently:

>>> a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>>
>>> import fibo

>>> fib = fibo.fib

>>> dir()

['__builtins__', '__name__', 'a', 'fib', 'fibo', 'sys']

Note that it lists all types of names: variables, modules, functions, etc.

dir() does not list the names of built-in functions and variables. If you
want a list of those, they are defined in the
standard module
builtins :

>>> import builtins

>>>
>>> dir(builtins)

['ArithmeticError', 'AssertionError', 'AttributeError', 'BaseException',

'BlockingIOError', 'BrokenPipeError', 'BufferError', 'BytesWarning',

'ChildProcessError', 'ConnectionAbortedError', 'ConnectionError',

'ConnectionRefusedError', 'ConnectionResetError', 'DeprecationWarning',

'EOFError', 'Ellipsis', 'EnvironmentError', 'Exception', 'False',

'FileExistsError', 'FileNotFoundError', 'FloatingPointError',

'FutureWarning', 'GeneratorExit', 'IOError', 'ImportError',

'ImportWarning', 'IndentationError', 'IndexError', 'InterruptedError',

'IsADirectoryError', 'KeyError', 'KeyboardInterrupt', 'LookupError',

'MemoryError', 'NameError', 'None', 'NotADirectoryError', 'NotImplemented',

'NotImplementedError', 'OSError', 'OverflowError',

'PendingDeprecationWarning', 'PermissionError', 'ProcessLookupError',

'ReferenceError', 'ResourceWarning', 'RuntimeError', 'RuntimeWarning',

'StopIteration', 'SyntaxError', 'SyntaxWarning', 'SystemError',

'SystemExit', 'TabError', 'TimeoutError', 'True', 'TypeError',

'UnboundLocalError', 'UnicodeDecodeError', 'UnicodeEncodeError',

'UnicodeError', 'UnicodeTranslateError', 'UnicodeWarning', 'UserWarning',

'ValueError', 'Warning', 'ZeroDivisionError', '_', '__build_class__',

'__debug__', '__doc__', '__import__', '__name__', '__package__', 'abs',

'all', 'any', 'ascii', 'bin', 'bool', 'bytearray', 'bytes', 'callable',

'chr', 'classmethod', 'compile', 'complex', 'copyright', 'credits',

'delattr', 'dict', 'dir', 'divmod', 'enumerate', 'eval', 'exec', 'exit',

'filter', 'float', 'format', 'frozenset', 'getattr', 'globals', 'hasattr',

'hash', 'help', 'hex', 'id', 'input', 'int', 'isinstance', 'issubclass',

'iter', 'len', 'license', 'list', 'locals', 'map', 'max', 'memoryview',

'min', 'next', 'object', 'oct', 'open', 'ord', 'pow', 'print', 'property',

'quit', 'range', 'repr', 'reversed', 'round', 'set', 'setattr', 'slice',

'sorted', 'staticmethod', 'str', 'sum', 'super', 'tuple', 'type', 'vars',

'zip']

6.4. Pacotes
Os pacotes são uma maneira de estruturar o namespace do módulo do Python usando "nomes de módulo pontilhados".
Por exemplo, o nome do módulo designa um submodulo nomeado em um pacote chamado . Assim como o uso de
módulos salva os autores de diferentes módulos de ter que se preocupar com os nomes variáveis globais uns dos outros,
o uso de nomes de módulos pontilhados salva os autores de pacotes de vários módulos como NumPy ou Pillow de ter
que se preocupar com os nomes dos módulos uns dos outros. A.B B A

Suponha que você queira projetar uma coleção de módulos (um "pacote") para o manuseio uniforme de arquivos de som
e dados de som. Existem muitos formatos de arquivo de som diferentes (geralmente reconhecidos por sua extensão, por
exemplo: , , , então você pode precisar criar e manter uma coleção crescente de módulos para a conversão entre os
vários formatos de arquivo. Há também muitas operações diferentes que você pode querer executar em dados de som
(como misturar, adicionar eco, aplicar uma função de equalizador, criar um efeito estéreo artificial), então, além disso,
você estará escrevendo um fluxo interminável de módulos para executar essas operações. Aqui está uma possível
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estrutura para o seu pacote (expressa em termos de um sistema de arquivos hierárquico): .wav .aiff .au

sound/ Top-level package

__init__.py Initialize the sound package

formats/ Subpackage for file format conversions

__init__.py

wavread.py

wavwrite.py

aiffread.py

aiffwrite.py

auread.py

auwrite.py

...

effects/ Subpackage for sound effects

__init__.py

echo.py

surround.py

reverse.py

...

filters/ Subpackage for filters

__init__.py

equalizer.py

vocoder.py

karaoke.py

...

Ao importar o pacote, o Python pesquisa através dos diretórios ao procurar o subdiretório do pacote. sys.path

Os arquivos são necessários para fazer diretórios de tratado Python contendo o arquivo como pacotes. Isso impede
diretórios com um nome comum, como, ocultar involuntariamente módulos válidos que ocorrem mais tarde no caminho de
pesquisa do módulo. No caso mais simples, pode ser apenas um arquivo vazio, mas também pode executar o código de
inicialização do pacote ou definir a variável, descrita posteriormente. __init__.py string __init__.py __all__

Os usuários do pacote podem importar módulos individuais do pacote, por exemplo:

import sound.effects.echo

Isso carrega o submodulo. Deve ser referenciado com seu nome completo. sound.effects.echo

sound.effects.echo.echofilter(input, output, delay=0.7, atten=4)

Uma maneira alternativa de importar o submodulo é:

from sound.effects import echo

Isso também carrega o submodulo e o disponibiliza sem o prefixo do pacote, para que possa ser usado da seguinte
forma: echo

echo.echofilter(input, output, delay=0.7, atten=4)

Outra variação é importar a função ou variável desejada diretamente:

from sound.effects.echo import echofilter

Novamente, isso carrega o submodulo, mas isso torna sua função diretamente disponível: echo echofilter()

echofilter(input, output, delay=0.7, atten=4)

Observe que, ao utilizar, o item pode ser um submodulo (ou subembalagem) do pacote, ou algum outro nome definido no
pacote, como uma função, classe ou variável. A instrução primeiro testa se o item está definido no pacote; se não, ele
assume que é um módulo e tenta carregá-lo. Se ele não encontrá-lo, uma exceção importerror é levantada. from
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package import item import

Ao contrário, ao usar sintaxe como , cada item exceto o último deve ser um pacote; o último item pode ser um módulo ou
um pacote, mas não pode ser uma classe ou função ou variável definida no item anterior. import
item.subitem.subsubitem

6.4.1. Importação * De um pacote

Agora, o que acontece quando o usuário escreve? Idealmente, seria de esperar que isso de alguma forma vá para o
sistema de arquivos, encontre quais submodules estão presentes no pacote e importa todos eles. Isso pode levar muito
tempo e a importação de subt módulos pode ter efeitos colaterais indesejados que só devem acontecer quando o
subsíndice for explicitamente importado. from sound.effects import *

A única solução é que o autor do pacote forneça um índice explícito do pacote. A declaração de importação usa a
seguinte convenção: se o código de um pacote definir uma lista nomeada, ela será considerada a lista de nomes de
módulos que devem ser importados quando encontrado. Cabe ao autor do pacote manter esta lista atualizada quando
uma nova versão do pacote for lançada. Os autores do pacote também podem decidir não apoiá-lo, se não virem um uso
para importar * de seu pacote. Por exemplo, o arquivo pode conter o seguinte código: __init__.py __all__ from package
import * sound/effects/__init__.py

__all__ = ["echo", "surround", "reverse"]

This would mean that would import the three

named submodules of the package. from sound.effects import * sound

If is not defined, the statement does not import all submodules from the package into the
current namespace; it only
ensures that the package has
been imported (possibly running any initialization code in )
and then imports whatever
names are defined in the package. This includes any
names defined (and submodules explicitly loaded) by . It
also
includes any submodules of the package that were explicitly loaded by
previous import statements. Consider this
code: __all__ from sound.effects import * sound.effects sound.effects __init__.py __init__.py

import sound.effects.echo

import sound.effects.surround

from sound.effects import *

In this example, the and modules are imported in the

current namespace because they are defined in the package
when
the statement is executed. (This also works when
is defined.) echo surround sound.effects from...import __all__

Although certain modules are designed to export only names that follow certain
patterns when you use , it is still
considered bad practice in
production code. import *

Remember, there is nothing wrong with using ! In fact, this is the recommended notation unless the
importing module
needs to use submodules with the same name from different
packages. from package import
specific_submodule

6.4.2. Intra-package References

When packages are structured into subpackages (as with the package
in the example), you can use absolute imports to
refer to submodules of siblings
packages. For example, if the module needs to use
the module in the package, it can use
. sound sound.filters.vocoder echo sound.effects from
sound.effects import echo

You can also write relative imports, with the form

of import statement. These imports use leading dots to indicate the
current and
parent packages involved in the relative import. From the module for example, you might use: from module
import name surround

from . import echo

from .. import formats

from ..filters import equalizer

Note that relative imports are based on the name of the current module. Since
the name of the main module is always ,
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modules intended for use
as the main module of a Python application must always use absolute imports. "__main__"

6.4.3. Packages in Multiple Directories

Packages support one more special attribute, __path__ . This is

initialized to be a list containing the name of the directory
holding the
package’s before the code in that file is executed. This
variable can be modified; doing so affects future
searches for modules and
subpackages contained in the package. __init__.py

While this feature is not often needed, it can be used to extend the set of
modules found in a package.

Footnotes

[1] In fact function definitions are also ‘statements’ that are ‘executed’; the
execution of a module-level function definition
enters the function name in
the module’s global symbol table.