Is it possible to reload a python module as something?

Question

Messing around in the interpreter, it would be useful for me to be able to do something along the lines of reload(foo) as f, though I know it is not possible. Just like I do import foo as f, is there a way to do it?

Using Python 2.6

Thanks!

Answer 1

If you import as import foo as f in the first place, then the reload call can be reload(f)

Answer 2

Python 3 Answer

As others have said, just reload using the name you used as an alias. However, since imp is deprecated in Python 3, you should now do this with importlib. Let's say your original import used an alias as follows:

import fullLibName as aliasName

Then to reload the alias:

importlib.reload(aliasName)

Or (more standard usage):

from importlib import reload
...
reload(aliasName)

Answer 3

import foo
f = reload(foo)

This should work, if I understand your question right.

If you don't actually need to reload the library, you can do as Martijn suggested, and just re-assign foo.

f = foo

Answer 4

The imp module gives you more access to import internals, and you can import any source file (i.e. it doesn't need to be in the path).

E.g.

anyname = imp.load_source("SOME NAME", FILEPATH)