How to reference python package when filename contains a period

Question

I am using django and I have a file named models.admin.py and I want to do the following idea in models.py:

from "models.admin" import * 

however, I get a syntax error for having double quotes. But if I just do

from models.admin import * 

then I get "ImportError: No module named admin"

Is there any way to import from a python file that has a period in its name?

Answer 1

Actually, you can import a module with an invalid name. But you'll need to use imp for that, e.g. assuming file is named models.admin.py, you could do

import imp with open('models.admin.py', 'rb') as fp:     models_admin = imp.load_module(         'models_admin', fp, 'models.admin.py',         ('.py', 'rb', imp.PY_SOURCE)     ) 

But read the docs on imp.find_module and imp.load_module before you start using it.

Answer 2

If you really want to, you can import a module with an unusual filename (e.g., a filename containing a '.' before the '.py') using the imp module:

>>> import imp >>> a_b = imp.load_source('a.b', 'a.b.py') >>> a_b.x "I was defined in a.b.py!" 

However, that's generally a bad idea. It's more likely that you're trying to use packages, in which case you should create a directory named "a", containing a file named "b.py"; and then "import a.b" will load a/b.py.