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What's the Pythonic way of supporting constants across modules in one project as well as across projects? [duplicate]

This seems pretty basic, so I must be missing something obvious. Goal is to import a module from the same directory. I've broken it down about as simple as I can and I'm getting the nameerror.
file import_this.py:
def my_function(number) :
print number + 2
file import_test.py:
import import_this
my_function(2)
Do I have to specify the directory the import file is in? (It's in the same as the test file). Also, can I test to see what modules are imported?

You are accessing the function incorrectly.
Either use the following
import import_this
import_this.my_function(2)
or do,
from import_this import my_function
my_function(2)

Alternatively (apart from #mu's answer above),
>>>import import_this as it
.. and then,
>>> it.my_function(2)

Unable to split up large Python module

In Python 2.7, I'm getting
'module' has no attribute
, and/or
'name' is not defined
errors when I try to split up a large python file.
(I have already read similar posts and the Python modules documentation)
Say you have a python file that is structured like this:
<imports>
<50 global variables defined>
<100 lengthy functions that each use most or all of the globals
defined above, and also call each other>
<main() that calls some of the functions and uses the globals>
So I can easily categorize groups of functions together, create a python file for each group, and put them there. The problem is whenever I try to call any of them from the main python file, I get the errors listed above. I think the problem is related to circular dependencies. Since all of the functions rely on the globals, and each other, they are circularly dependent.
If I have main_file.py, group_of_functions_1.py, and group_of_functions_2.py,
main_file.py will have:
import group_of_functions_1.py
import group_of_functions_2.py
and group_of_functions_1.py will have
import main_file.py
import group_of_functions_2.py
and group_of_functions_2.py will have
import main_file.py
import group_of_functions_1.py
Regardless of whether I use "import package_x" or "from package_x import *" the problem remains.
If I take the route of getting rid of the globals, then most of the functions will have 50 parameters they will be passing around which then also need to be returned
What is the right way to clean this up?
(I have already read similar posts and the Python modules documentation)

One of the sources of your errors is likely the following:
import group_of_functions_1.py
import group_of_functions_2.py
When importing, you don't add .py to the end of the module name. Do this instead:
import group_of_functions_1
import group_of_functions_2

Load A Separate Codefile in Python

I have two codefiles in python, let's say mainfile.py and separatecode.py. I would like to run separatecode.py from within mainfile.py, referencing the specific directory where separatecode.py is stored.
So the pseudocode of what I am looking to do would be something like:
import C:\Users\Jack\Documents\MyFolder\separatecode.py
A number of questions discuss importing, but I can't find one that discusses importing a specific file you wrote in a particular directory. I would like to be able to use functions defined in separatecode.py and am looking for the equivalent of the source("separatecode.r") command in R if that helps.

Add that directory to your sys.path by doing:
import sys
sys.path.append('/directory/to/my/file')
Import the module as normal:
import separatecode

The code you used will not work. It will give a syntax error.
Look at the documentation for the import statement, especially the grammar. A module is one or more identifiers separated by dots.
You can make import separatecode work by adding C:\Users\Jack\Documents\MyFolder to the PYTHONPATH environment variable. This will make it available to all Python scripts. Or you can add that path to sys.path in mainfile.py before importing separatecode.

Try something like this:
import imp
foo = imp.load_source('Module_name', 'Path\To\module.py')
foo.MyClass()
you dont need the foo.MyClass() it was just an example to show that the module works like any other module
no you can import a module from anywhere using the path and its name and you can acsess all its functions etc
for anything else check out:
Python Imp
I hope this is what you were looking for

Python: Importing an "import file"

I am importing a lot of different scripts, so at the top of my file it gets cluttered with import statements, i.e.:
from somewhere.fileA import ...
from somewhere.fileB import ...
from somewhere.fileC import ...
...
Is there a way to move all of these somewhere else and then all I have to do is import that file instead so it's just one clean import?

I strongly advise against what you want to do. You are doing the global include file mistake again. Although only one module is importing all your modules (as opposed to all modules importing the global one), the remaining point is that if there's a valid reason for all those modules to be collected under a common name, fine. If there's no reason, then they should be kept as separate includes. The reason is documentation. If I open your file, and see only one import, I don't get any information about what is imported and where it comes from. If on the other hand, I have the list of imports, I know at a glance what is needed and what not.
Also, there's another important error I assume you are doing. When you say
from somewhere.fileA import ...
from somewhere.fileB import ...
from somewhere.fileC import ...
I assume you are importing, for example, a class, like this
from somewhere.fileA import MyClass
this is wrong. This alternative solution is much better
from somewhere import fileA
<later>
a=fileA.MyClass()
Why? two reasons: first, namespacing. If you have two modules having a class named MyClass, you would have a clash. Second, documentation. Suppose you use the first option, and I find in your code the following line
a=MyClass()
now I have no idea where this MyClass comes from, and I will have to grep around all your files in order to find it. Having it qualified with the module name allows me to immediately understand where it comes from, and immediately find, via a /search, where stuff coming from the fileA module is used in your program.
Final note: when you say "fileA" you are doing a mistake. There are modules (or packages), not files. Modules map to files, and packages map to directories, but they may also map to egg files, and you may even create a module having no file at all. This is naming of concepts, and it's a lateral issue.

Of course there is; just create a file called myimports.py in the same directory where your main file is and put your imports there. Then you can simply use from myimports import * in your main script.

Python: intercept a class loading action

Summary: when a certain python module is imported, I want to be able to intercept this action, and instead of loading the required class, I want to load another class of my choice.
Reason: I am working on some legacy code. I need to write some unit test code before I start some enhancement/refactoring. The code imports a certain module which will fail in a unit test setting, however. (Because of database server dependency)
Pseduo Code:
from LegacyDataLoader import load_me_data
...
def do_something():
data = load_me_data()
So, ideally, when python excutes the import line above in a unit test, an alternative class, says MockDataLoader, is loaded instead.
I am still using 2.4.3. I suppose there is an import hook I can manipulate
Edit
Thanks a lot for the answers so far. They are all very helpful.
One particular type of suggestion is about manipulation of PYTHONPATH. It does not work in my case. So I will elaborate my particular situation here.
The original codebase is organised in this way
./dir1/myapp/database/LegacyDataLoader.py
./dir1/myapp/database/Other.py
./dir1/myapp/database/__init__.py
./dir1/myapp/__init__.py
My goal is to enhance the Other class in the Other module. But since it is legacy code, I do not feel comfortable working on it without strapping a test suite around it first.
Now I introduce this unit test code
./unit_test/test.py
The content is simply:
from myapp.database.Other import Other
def test1():
o = Other()
o.do_something()
if __name__ == "__main__":
test1()
When the CI server runs the above test, the test fails. It is because class Other uses LegacyDataLoader, and LegacydataLoader cannot establish database connection to the db server from the CI box.
Now let's add a fake class as suggested:
./unit_test_fake/myapp/database/LegacyDataLoader.py
./unit_test_fake/myapp/database/__init__.py
./unit_test_fake/myapp/__init__.py
Modify the PYTHONPATH to
export PYTHONPATH=unit_test_fake:dir1:unit_test
Now the test fails for another reason
File "unit_test/test.py", line 1, in <module>
from myapp.database.Other import Other
ImportError: No module named Other
It has something to do with the way python resolves classes/attributes in a module

You can intercept import and from ... import statements by defining your own __import__ function and assigning it to __builtin__.__import__ (make sure to save the previous value, since your override will no doubt want to delegate to it; and you'll need to import __builtin__ to get the builtin-objects module).
For example (Py2.4 specific, since that's what you're asking about), save in aim.py the following:
import __builtin__
realimp = __builtin__.__import__
def my_import(name, globals={}, locals={}, fromlist=[]):
print 'importing', name, fromlist
return realimp(name, globals, locals, fromlist)
__builtin__.__import__ = my_import
from os import path
and now:
$ python2.4 aim.py
importing os ('path',)
So this lets you intercept any specific import request you want, and alter the imported module[s] as you wish before you return them -- see the specs here. This is the kind of "hook" you're looking for, right?

There are cleaner ways to do this, but I'll assume that you can't modify the file containing from LegacyDataLoader import load_me_data.
The simplest thing to do is probably to create a new directory called testing_shims, and create LegacyDataLoader.py file in it. In that file, define whatever fake load_me_data you like. When running the unit tests, put testing_shims into your PYTHONPATH environment variable as the first directory. Alternately, you can modify your test runner to insert testing_shims as the first value in sys.path.
This way, your file will be found when importing LegacyDataLoader, and your code will be loaded instead of the real code.

The import statement just grabs stuff from sys.modules if a matching name is found there, so the simplest thing is to make sure you insert your own module into sys.modules under the target name before anything else tries to import the real thing.
# in test code
import sys
import MockDataLoader
sys.modules['LegacyDataLoader'] = MockDataLoader
import module_under_test
There are a handful of variations on the theme, but that basic approach should work fine to do what you describe in the question. A slightly simpler approach would be this, using just a mock function to replace the one in question:
# in test code
import module_under_test
def mock_load_me_data():
# do mock stuff here
module_under_test.load_me_data = mock_load_me_data
That simply replaces the appropriate name right in the module itself, so when you invoke the code under test, presumably do_something() in your question, it calls your mock routine.

Well, if the import fails by raising an exception, you could put it in a try...except loop:
try:
from LegacyDataLoader import load_me_data
except: # put error that occurs here, so as not to mask actual problems
from MockDataLoader import load_me_data
Is that what you're looking for? If it fails, but doesn't raise an exception, you could have it run the unit test with a special command line tag, like --unittest, like this:
import sys
if "--unittest" in sys.argv:
from MockDataLoader import load_me_data
else:
from LegacyDataLoader import load_me_data