Equivalent of source() of R in Python

Question

Like we have source() function to execute a R program in another R program in R studio, how do I execute a python program in another python program?

Answer 1

Given 2 python scripts: first.py and second.py, the usual way to execute the first from the second is something in the lines of:

first.py:

def func1():
    print 'inside func1 in first.py'

if __name__ == '__main__':
    # first.py executed as a script
    func1()

second.py:

import first

def second_func():
    print 'inside second_func in second.py'

if __name__ == '__main__':
    # second.py executed as a script
    second_func()
    first.func1() # executing a function from first.py

Edits:

• You could also go for the simple execfile("second.py") if you wish (although it is only within the calling namespace).
• And a final option is using os.system like so:
  os.system("second.py").

Answer 2

If you're used to sourcing directly from GitHub, you can use the requests package to download the raw *.py file with an http get, and then execute the file.

import requests
exec(requests.get('http://github.myorg.net/raw/repo/directory/file.py').text)

Disclaimer: I'm an R user learning Python, so this might be violating some Python best practices