Python Import Error not working

Question

I currently have the following directory structure:

Folder/
 package/
 __init__.py, .. many python files
 subfolder/
 file1.py

Now, my problem is that I am in the Folder directory. I can run python and then run import package. This works fine. However, in my file1.py, I import package at the beginning but when I run python subfolder/file1.py, it cannot find module named package.

Edited: I currently have __ init__.py (with 2 underscores)

• MMF: How do you import your package in file1.py ?
• d-coder: Renaming _init_.py to __init__.py should help you out
• kfb: I suspect the underscores are a typo: the problem will remain even if they are fixed.

Answer 1

In the latter case, Python cannot find package because it is not visible on sys.path. sys.path will contain amongst other things the parent directory of the script currently being executed.

So when you run Python from Folder, this entry is /path/to/Folder and import package correctly finds the package directory from this. In your second case, this entry will be /path/to/Folder/subfolder and import package will fail because it tries to find /path/to/Folder/subfolder/package.

• kfb: It's difficult to answer this question without knowing what you're trying to achieve. You can manipulate sys.path inside a script to bring the right packages into scope (i.e. by adding /path/to/Folder to sys.path in file1.py before importing package), but often a rethink of your architecture is a better approach.

Answer 2

Rename _init_.py to __init__.py (two underscores)