How to import a Python class that is in a directory above?

Question

I want to inherit from a class in a file that lies in a directory above the current one.

Is it possible to relatively import that file?

Answer 1

Inside a package hierarchy, use two dots, as the import statement doc says:

When specifying what module to import you do not have to specify the absolute name of the module. When a module or package is contained within another package it is possible to make a relative import within the same top package without having to mention the package name. By using leading dots in the specified module or package after from you can specify how high to traverse up the current package hierarchy without specifying exact names. One leading dot means the current package where the module making the import exists. Two dots means up one package level. Three dots is up two levels, etc. So if you execute from . import mod from a module in the pkg package then you will end up importing pkg.mod. If you execute from ..subpkg2 import mod from within pkg.subpkg1 you will import pkg.subpkg2.mod. The specification for relative imports is contained within PEP 328.

PEP 328 deals with absolute/relative imports.

Answer 2

import sys
sys.path.append("..") # Adds higher directory to python modules path.

Answer 3

@gimel's answer is correct if you can guarantee the package hierarchy he mentions. If you can't -- if your real need is as you expressed it, exclusively tied to directories and without any necessary relationship to packaging -- then you need to work on __file__ to find out the parent directory (a couple of os.path.dirname calls will do;-), then (if that directory is not already on sys.path) prepend temporarily insert said dir at the very start of sys.path, __import__, remove said dir again -- messy work indeed, but, "when you must, you must" (and Pyhon strives to never stop the programmer from doing what must be done -- just like the ISO C standard says in the "Spirit of C" section in its preface!-).

Here is an example that may work for you:

import sys
import os.path
sys.path.append(
    os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), os.path.pardir)))

import module_in_parent_dir

Answer 4

Import module from a directory which is exactly one level above the current directory:

from .. import module

Answer 5

Python is a modular system

Python doesn't rely on a file system

To load python code reliably, have that code in a module, and that module installed in python's library.

Installed modules can always be loaded from the top level namespace with import <name>

---

There is a great sample project available officially here: https://github.com/pypa/sampleproject

Basically, you can have a directory structure like so:

the_foo_project/
    setup.py  

    bar.py           # `import bar`
    foo/
      __init__.py    # `import foo`

      baz.py         # `import foo.baz`

      faz/           # `import foo.faz`
        __init__.py
        daz.py       # `import foo.faz.daz` ... etc.

.

Be sure to declare your setuptools.setup() in setup.py,

official example: https://github.com/pypa/sampleproject/blob/master/setup.py

In our case we probably want to export bar.py and foo/__init__.py, my brief example:

setup.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import setuptools

setuptools.setup(
    ...
    py_modules=['bar'],
    packages=['foo'],
    ...
    entry_points={}, 
        # Note, any changes to your setup.py, like adding to `packages`, or
        # changing `entry_points` will require the module to be reinstalled;
        # `python3 -m pip install --upgrade --editable ./the_foo_project
)

.

Now we can install our module into the python library; with pip, you can install the_foo_project into your python library in edit mode, so we can work on it in real time

python3 -m pip install --editable=./the_foo_project

# if you get a permission error, you can always use 
# `pip ... --user` to install in your user python library

.

Now from any python context, we can load our shared py_modules and packages

foo_script.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import bar
import foo

print(dir(bar))
print(dir(foo))