Python import type detection

Question

Can a python module detect if has been imported with import module or from module import *? Something like

 if __something__=='something':
      print 'Directly imported with "import ' + __name__ + '"'
 else:
      print 'Imported with "from ' + __name__ + ' import *"'

Thank you.

Answer 1

No, it's not possible to detect this from within the module's code. Upon the first import, the module body is executed and a new module object is inserted in sys.modules. Only after this, the requested names are inserted into the namespace of the importing module.

Upon later imports, the module body isn't even executed. So if a module is first imported as

import module

and a second time as

from module import name

it has no chance to do anything at all during the second import. In particular, it cannot check how it is imported.