How to do multiple imports in Python?

python import iterator require
Eduardo picture Eduardo · Jul 16, 2010 · Viewed 84.9k times · Source

In Ruby, instead of repeating the "require" (the "import" in Python) word lots of times, I do

%w{lib1 lib2 lib3 lib4 lib5}.each { |x| require x }

So it iterates over the set of "libs" and "require" (import) each one of them. Now I'm writing a Python script and I would like to do something like that. Is there a way to, or do I need to write "import" for all of them.

The straight-forward "traduction" would be something like the following code. Anyway, since Python does not import libs named as strings, it does not work.

requirements = [lib1, lib2, lib3, lib4, lib5]
for lib in requirements:
    import lib

Thanks in advance

Answer

Brian picture Brian · Jul 16, 2010

For known module, just separate them by commas:

import lib1, lib2, lib3, lib4, lib5

If you really need to programmatically import based on dynamic variables, a literal translation of your ruby would be:

modnames = "lib1 lib2 lib3 lib4 lib5".split()
for lib in modnames:
    globals()[lib] = __import__(lib)

Though there's no need for this in your example.

Related questions

Call a function from another file?

Set_up: I have a .py file for each function I need to use in a program. In this program, I need to call the function from the external files. I've tried: from file.py import function(a,b) But …

Read More
Import Error: No module named numpy

I have a very similar question to this question, but still one step behind. I have only one version of Python 3 installed on my Windows 7 (sorry) 64-bit system. I installed numpy following this link - as suggested in the question. …

Read More
`from ... import` vs `import .`

I'm wondering if there's any difference between the code fragment from urllib import request and the fragment import urllib.request or if they are interchangeable. If they are interchangeable, which is the "standard"/"preferred" syntax (if there is one)?

Read More