Python: import submodule from importlib module

Question

I have a directory like this:

parent.py ------+
 child1.py---+
 child2.py---+
 ... etc

I can import the parent module like this:

importlib.import_module("parent"))

So, what is the best way to get the child module now that I already have the parent module? I've tried parent.child1, importlib.import_module("child1", parent), parent.import_module('child1'), etc. to no avail.

Any advice?

Thanks

• Drees: Possible duplicate how to import a module in python with importlib import-module

Answer 1

You can try to organize files in this way:

parent (directory)-+
 __init__.py ---+
 child1.py ---+
 child2.py ---+

In init.py you can import from child* files and that will be available to import from outside the module in parent.

Example __init__.py. It can also be empty, but it must exist.

from child1 import foo
from child2 import bar

Use from outside:

from parent import foo
or
from parent.child1 import foo

This doesn't answer directly your question. But, after you reorganize files in above way try to use importlib again.

Answer 2

You can use the optional parameter package for this:

importlib.import_module("child1", package="parent")

Documentation reference: https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/importlib.html#importlib.import_module