Python Error: "ImportError: No module named six"

Question

I am running Python 2.7 on a Windows 7 OS

Here is what I run:

>>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

Then I get this:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#3>", line 1, in <module>
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\pyplot.py", line 29, in <module>
    from matplotlib.figure import Figure, figaspect
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\figure.py", line 36, in <module>
    from matplotlib.axes import Axes, SubplotBase, subplot_class_factory
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\axes.py", line 20, in <module>
    import matplotlib.dates as _  # <-registers a date unit converter
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\dates.py", line 119, in <module>
    from dateutil.rrule import (rrule, MO, TU, WE, TH, FR, SA, SU, YEARLY,
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\dateutil\rrule.py", line 18, in <module>
    from six import advance_iterator, integer_types
ImportError: No module named six

Now, I have downloaded six from here : https://pypi.python.org/pypi/six

I unzipped it and if I open up a file from there called setup.py and then I try to import matplotlib then it works, but I don;t have to do this every time I want to make a plot do I? Isn't there a way to get this to work automatically?

Answer 1

I got exactly the same error message. And it seams there are many many possible causes. In my case, I solved the issue by reinstalling six

pip uninstall six ; pip install six

I guess the previous installation was aborted before a complete termination. Or maybe a permission issue. Or something else ... now it's too late to investigate what was the real cause.