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Python package import error Import error: Relative import attempt without known parent package

The project has the same structure as in the picture: I'm trying to import from "mod.py " in "index.py "
from .. import mod
However, it gives the error: "ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package" If you use this option:
from pack1 import mod
Then error: "ModuleNotFoundError error: there is no module named 'pack1'"
enter image description here
PROJECT/
pack1/
__init__.py
mod.py
pack2/
__init__.py
index.py
What is the problem?

This is a recurring question on StackOverflow. And much of the confusion (in my opinion) comes from how Python interprets the files and folders it sees is based on where Python is run from. First, some terminology:
module: a file containing Python code.
package: a folder containing files with Python code and other folders.
When you start Python in a directory (folder), it doesn't "know" what the namespace of that directory should be. I.e., if you are working in Z:\path\to_my\project\ when you start Python:
it does NOT consider project to be a package.
any .py files you want to import from will be in their own namespace as modules.
any folders you want to import from will also be in their own namespace as packages.
What about __init__.py? Since version 3.3, Python has implicit namespace packages, which allows importing without needing to create an empty __init__.py file.
Consider #2: if you have two files: first.py and second.py:
path/
to_my/
project/
>>Python is running here<<
first.py
second.py
with these contents:
# first.py
first_var = 'hello'
# second.py
from .first import first_var
second_var = first_var + ' world'
if you try to import like this:
>>> import second
Python basically does the following:
"ok, I see second.py"
"Reading that in as a module, chief!"
"Ok, it wants to import .first
"The . means get the package (folder) that contains first.py"
"Wait, I don't have a parent package for first.py!"
"Better raise an error."
The same rules apply for #3 as well. If we add a few packages to the project like this:
path/
to_my/
project/
>>Python is running here<<
first.py
second.py
pack1/
mod.py
other_mod.py
pack2/
index.py
with the following contents:
# pack1/mod.py
mod_var = 1234
# pack1/other_mod.py
from .mod import mod_var
other_var = mod_var * 10
# pack2/index.py
from ..pack1 import mod
and when you try to import like this:
>>> from pack2 import index.py
The import in pack2/index.py is going to fail for the same reason second.py, Python will work its way up the import chain of dots like this:
"Reading in in index.py as a module."
"Looks like it wants to import mod from ..pack1.
"Ok, . is the pack2 parent package namespace of index.py, found that."
"So, .. is the parent package of pack2."
"But, I don't have a parent package for pack2!"
"Better raise an error."
How do we make it work? Two thing.
First, move where Python is running up one level so that all of the .py files and subfolders are considered to be part of the same package namespace, which allows the file to reference each other using relative references.
path/
to_my/
>>Python is running here now<<
project/
first.py
second.py
pack1/
mod.py
other_mod.py
pack2/
index.py
So now Python sees project as a package namespace, and all of the files within can use relative references up to that level.
This changes how you import when you are in the Python interpreter:
>>> from project.pack2 import index.py
Second, you make explicit references instead of relative references. That can make the import statements really long, but if you have several top-level modules that need to pull from one another, this is how you can do it. This is useful when you are defining your functions in one file and writing your script in another.
# first.py
first_var = 'hello'
# second.py
from first import first_var # we dropped the dot
second_var = first_var + ' world'
I hope this helps clear up some of the confusion about relative imports.

A file import is working when I run the file from inside the module, but not when I run the file by importing the module from outside

My directory structure:
test.py
module/
importer.py
importee.py
__init__.py
So in my directory, I have test.py, then another directory which has been initialized as a module. Within that module, there is a file importer.py which imports a file importee.py. In order to test whether the import works, I made a simple function in importee.py and tried using it in importer.py (i.e. I ran importer.py directly); it worked just fine.
But when I go into test.py and have the import statement from module import * and try to run that (without any other code), it gives an error which traces back to the import statement in importer.py, saying No module named 'importee'
If it matters, the __init__.py in the module directory has the __all__ function specified properly.
I like to think this isn't a duplicate despite there being similarly titled posts, such as this or this or this or this; I've been searching for hours and still have no idea what could be causing this.
Any ideas? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Edit: content of the four files:
init.py
__ all __ = ["importee", "importer"]
importee.py
def example():
print("hey")
importer.py
from importee import *
example()
test.py
from module import *
When I run importer.py I get no errors, but when I run test.py I get a error which traces back to the first line of importer.py saying that No module named 'importee' found, even though I don't get that error when running importer.py directly...

The following runs and prints "hey" regardless of if you run python test.py from root or python importer.py from module.
You can learn more about relative imports from PEP 328. You can learn more about init here, but the important thing I want you to take away from this is that __init__ runs when you import from module.
Furthermore defining __all__ overrides identifiers that begin with _, and since you aren't using them I don't actually know that it would have any effect.
# test.py
from module import *
# module/__init__.py
from .importer import *
# module/importee.py
def example():
print("hey")
# module/importer.py
from .importee import *
example()

__init__.py :: make a submodule routines available at top level import

Assume the following structure...
root/test.py
root/myapp/__init__.py
root/myapp/myapp.py # contains My_App_Class()
root/myapp/SomeObject.py # contains My_Obj_Class()
If my __init__.py contains the following structure:
from myapp import *
import SomeObject
__all__ = ['SomeObject']
I want to be able to call myapp and have the routines pre-extracted from myapp/myapp.py so that I can do the following in test.py:
import myapp
if 'My_App_Class' in myapp.__dict__.keys():
print 'success'
else:
print 'fail'
if 'My_Obj_Class' in myapp.SomeObject.__dict__.keys():
print 'success'
else:
print 'fail'
so that I can effectively collapse from myapp.myapp import * into from myapp import *
In [1]: %run test.py
fail
success

The __all__ attribute in your __init__.py file is what is preventing other names (imported from myapp/myapp.py) from being visible when using the myapp package.
Just don't use the all - and maybe, to avoid ambiguity, change the import written as:
from myapp import *
to
from .myapp import *
In other words, your __init__.py file should be simply:
from .myapp import *
import SomeObject
and no other line.
Your test.py on the other hand if further incorrect - if it starts with import myapp , all of myapp/myapp.py's names will be in the myapp namespace. You should change that first line to be from myapp import * as you put further down in the question.
Mandatory note: You should avoid doing import * and variants in Python projects that import names from packages. Python programs and projects should always import individual names from packages/modules - with the name written explicitly, anyone reading your code will know exactly from were each function or class you use came from. Moreover, IDE's and other programming tools will be able to check for non-existing or inconsistent names and warn you.
However, note it is ok to use from module import * inside a package's __init__.py to get the names exposed (in the __all__ export) in each of the package's modules into the package namespace itself - which is what you want.

Python - why can I import modules without __init__.py at all?

I'm new to Python and I still can't get my head around why we need a __init__.py file to import modules. I have gone through other questions and answers, such as this.
What confuses me is that I can import my modules without __init__py, so why do I need it at all?
My example,
index.py
modules/
hello/
hello.py
HelloWorld.py
index.py,
import os
import sys
root = os.path.dirname(__file__)
sys.path.append(root + "/modules/hello")
# IMPORTS MODULES
from hello import hello
from HelloWorld import HelloWorld
def application(environ, start_response):
results = []
results.append(hello())
helloWorld = HelloWorld()
results.append(helloWorld.sayHello())
output = "<br/>".join(results)
response_body = output
status = '200 OK'
response_headers = [('Content-Type', 'text/html'),
('Content-Length', str(len(response_body)))]
start_response(status, response_headers)
return [response_body]
modules/hello/hello.py,
def hello():
return 'Hello World from hello.py!'
modules/hello/HelloWorld.py,
# define a class
class HelloWorld:
def __init__(self):
self.message = 'Hello World from HelloWorld.py!'
def sayHello(self):
return self.message
Result,
Hello World from hello.py!
Hello World from HelloWorld.py!
What it takes is just these two lines,
root = os.path.dirname(__file__)
sys.path.append(root + "/modules/hello")
Without any of __init__py. Can someone explain why it works in this way?
If __init__py is the proper way, what should I do/change in my code?

Based on this link: Since Python 3.3
Allowing implicit namespace packages means that the requirement to provide an __init__.py file can be dropped completely

__init__.py is for packages. A package contains a collection of related modules. If you just have a single module you want to use, you don't need to use __init__.py; just put the single .py file somewhere on the system path and you can import it.
The purpose of packages is not just to allow you to import the modules inside them. It's to group the modules together. The main benefit of this is that, if a module is inside a package, then that module can import other modules from the package using relative imports. If you have foo.py and bar.py in the same package, then foo can just do from . import bar. This makes intra-package imports more compact and easier to reorganize if you restructure the package or change its name.
Also, an obvious benefit is. . . if you make it a package, you don't have to do that sys.path stuff every time you want to import something from it.

I think that this might be due to Python version you are using. I did some experimentation and found out that having following structure:
jedrzej#jedrzej-UX303LB ~/temp $ tree .
.
├── main.py
└── packages
├── file.py
└── file.pyc
1 directory, 5 files
content of main.py:
import packages.file as p
p.fun()
and content of file.py:
import sys
def fun():
print(sys.path)
When I am executing main.py with Python 2.7.12 I get ImportError while execution of main.py with Python 3.5.2 simply works.
After adding __init__.py in packages directory, code works with both versions of Python.

Files named __init__.py are used to mark directories on disk as Python package directories. If you have the files
modules/spam/__init__.py
modules/spam/module.py
and modules is in your path, you can import the code in module.py as
import spam.module
or
from spam import module
If you remove the __init__.py file, Python will no longer look for submodules inside that directory, so attempts to import the module will fail.
The __init__.py file is usually empty, but can be used to export selected portions of the package under a more convenient name, hold convenience functions, etc. Given the example above, the contents of the init module can be accessed with
import spam
And finally here is what the official documentation has to say about this file:
The __init__.py files are required to make Python treat the
directories as containing packages; this is done to prevent
directories with a common name, such as string, from
unintentionally hiding valid modules that occur later on the
module search path. In the simplest case, __init__.py can just
be an empty file, but it can also execute initialization code
for the package or set the __all__ variable, described later.

I think this is a good 'answer' for what I didn't understand.
myMath/
__init__.py
adv/
__init__.py
sqrt.py
fib.py
add.py
subtract.py
multiply.py
divide.py
myMath/__init__.py
from add import add
from divide import division
from multiply import multiply
from subtract import subtract
from adv.fib import fibonacci
from adv.sqrt import squareroot
index.py
import sys
sys.path.append('C:\Users\mdriscoll\Documents')
import mymath
print mymath.add(4,5)
print mymath.division(4, 2)
print mymath.multiply(10, 5)
print mymath.fibonacci(8)
print mymath.squareroot(48)

"Global name not defined" error

There are several posts around this error I have already read, but I still don't get what I am doing wrong.
I put it into a minimal example:
Imagine I have a Doc.py, and the package Tools which includes Tool1.py and Tool2.py.
Doc.py:
from Tools import *
import sys
def __main__():
TOOL_REPORT("Tool1","Test")
def TOOL_REPORT(tool, path):
if(tool == 'Tool1'):
Tool1.REPORT(path)
elif(tool == 'Tool2'):
Tool2.REPORT(path)
else:
sys.stderr.write("This tool is not yet included in Doc. Please check TOOLS for more information.")
if __name__=="__main__": __main__()
Tool1.py:
def REPORT(path):
print("Tool1 "+path)
Tool2.py:
def REPORT(path):
print("Tool2 "+path)
If I run this, I always end up with this error:
File "Doc.py", line 15, in TOOL_REPORT
Tool1.REPORT(path)
NameError: global name 'Tool1' is not defined
I'd appreciate any hint to what is going wrong!

Your Tool1 and Tool2 submodules are not visible until explicitly imported somewhere.
You can import them in the Tools/__init__.py package file:
import Tool1, Tool2
at which point they become available for import from Tools.
Another option is to import the modules from your own code:
import Tools.Tool1, Tools.Tool2
from Tools import *
Only when explicitly imported are submodules also set as attributes of the package.

Python will treat any folder as a module when there is __init__.py file present in it. Otherwise it will just be another folder for python and not a module from which it can import things. So just add init.py file in your Tool folder (so it will become module in pythonic terms) and then you can import that module in other python scripts.
One more things for better practice instead of using
from Tools import *
Always provide the file name of library specifically which you want to import like in your case you should use it like this
from Tools import Tool1, Tool2
This will enhance the code readbility for others and for you too.