Pythonic way to write long import statements

Question

What is the pythonic way to import from Models (or Forms or views) in Django?

To say it frank I bluntly do this:

from myapp.models import foo, bar, foobar, barfoo, foofoo, barbar, barfoobar, thelistgoeson, and, on, andon...

It is far longer than the maximum of 79 characters - but what is the better way to do this?

Answer 1

Use parentheses to group your imports together:

from myapp.models import (foo, bar, foobar, barfoo, foofoo,
    barbar, barfoobar, thelistgoeson, and, on, and, so, on)

This is in accordance with PEP-328 Rationale for parentheses:

Currently, if you want to import a lot of names from a module or package, you have to choose one of several unpalatable options:

• Write a long line with backslash continuations:
• Write multiple import statements:

(import * is not an option ;-)

Instead, it should be possible to use Python's standard grouping mechanism (parentheses) to write the import statement:

This part of the proposal had BDFL approval from the beginning.

Parentheses support was added to Python 2.4.

Answer 2

What about importing models?

from myapp import models

foo = models.foo
bar = models.bar

It is much shorter and you don't have to maintain a list of imports. You also get to have a namespace, and you can have local variables called foo and bar