Modules as function arguments

Question

I have a python script that starts with importing a python module that contains data. A very simplified example is given below:

my_data1.py

bar = 10
baz = [1, 5, 7]
...

my_func.py

from my_data1 import *
def foo():
 '''
 function that uses the things defined in data (scalar, list, dicts, etc.)
 in my_data
 '''
 return [bar] + baz

This works great for one set of data; however, I have my_data1.py, ..., my_data36.py.

my_data36.py

bar = 31
baz = [-1, 58, 8]
...

that I want to import and then run foo() with that data. I wanted to do something like this:

def foo(my_data):
 from my_data import *
results = []
for i in range(1,37):
 results.append(foo('my_data{}'.format(i)))

This doesn't work. Ideas?

• Chris Hagmann: I could import the specific data from my_data if that makes it feasible, but I haven't been able to figure that out either.
• Chris Hagmann: Yes and no. Each of the 36 have the exact same data names with different values (i.e. my_data1 has bar= 3, my_data2 has bar=10 and foo() uses bar)
• Karl Knechtel: Why not get the "data" by reading and parsing a file?

Answer 1

Use __import__. It takes a string as parameter identifying the module to be imported, and returns the module, which then you can pass as an argument to your functions.

def processDataSet (module):
 print (module.baz)
for m in ['data1.py', 'data2.py', 'data69.py']:
 processDataSet (__import__ (m) )

Answer 2

"from module import * is invalid inside function definitions." from http://docs.python.org/2/howto/doanddont.html#inside-function-definitions