Import files in python with a for loop and a list of names

Question

I am trying to import many files. I have a list (myList) of strings that are the names of the files of the modules that I want to import. All of the files which I want to import are in a directory called parentDirectory. This directory is in the folder that this code is in.

What I have so far is:

myList = {'fileOne', 'fileTwo', 'fileThree'}
for toImport in myList:
    moduleToImport = 'parentDirectory.'+toImport
    import moduleToImport

This code just treats moduleToImport as a module's name, but I want the code to understand that it is a variable for a string.

This is the Error Code:
dule>
    import moduleToImport
ImportError: No module named moduleToImport

Try - `import importlib; importedModule = importlib.import_module(moduleToImport)` Then you can use the imported module using `importedModule` . — Anand S Kumar, Jul 27 '15 at 19:02
you could move these files to a module and just import the module — cmd, Jul 27 '15 at 19:09
Thank you Anand, that works for me. Also, thanks for letting me know Padraic. — Rorschach, Jul 27 '15 at 19:13

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 27 '15 at 19:12

If you want the same effect as import <modulename> , then one way to do it would be to import the module using importlib.import_module() , and then use globals() function to get the global namespace and add the imported module using the same name there.

Code -

myList = {'fileOne', 'fileTwo', 'fileThree'}
import importLib
gbl = globals()
for toImport in myList:
    moduleToImport = 'parentDirectory.'+toImport
    gbl[moduleToImport] = importlib.import_module(moduleToImport)

Then later on you can use -

parentDirectory.fileOne.<something>

Example/Demo -

>>> import importlib
>>> globals()['b'] = importlib.import_module('b')
>>> b.myfun()
Hello

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 27 '15 at 19:14

3

myList = ['fileOne', 'fileTwo', 'fileThree']
modules = map(__import__, myList)

answered Jul 27 '15 at 19:14

open_new_tab

69
3

1

Is there a way to add the file path in the answer? So that I can refer to files in a different directory? – Rorschach Jul 27 '15 at 19:17
imp.load_source(module_name, file_path) – open_new_tab Jul 27 '15 at 19:24

Import files in python with a for loop and a list of names

2 Answers2

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