Import a package defined by a variable

Question

I want to do some package import timing tests. For this, I want to define a list of packages:

packages = [ 'random', 'dateutils', ... ]

for package in packages:
    import package

This is of course not working because import tries to import package "package". How can I tell import to import the package pointed to by the variable "package"?

possible duplicate of [How can I import a package using __import__() when the package name is only known at runtime?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1057843/how-can-i-import-a-package-using-import-when-the-package-name-is-only-know) — , Sep 13 '12 at 12:08

unutbu · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-13T12:11:12.227

8

for package in packages:
    package = __import__(package)

Note that if you are importing a module from a package, such as A.B,

__import__('A.B') returns package A, but __import__('A.B', fromlist = [True]) returns module B.

edited Sep 13 '12 at 12:11

answered Sep 13 '12 at 12:06

unutbu

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 13 '12 at 12:07

1

Read the description of "__import__" method in the manual may be helpful for you.

answered Sep 13 '12 at 12:07

rpbear

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Import a package defined by a variable

2 Answers2