import only some parts of a module, but list those parts as strings

Question

This question was marked as duplicate. However the duplicate questions deals with modules while my question is asking for how to import parts of module.

I know that I can import certain portions of the module by using from mymodule import myfunction. What if want to import several things, but I need to list them as strings. For example:

import_things = ['thing1', 'thing2', 'thing2']
from mymodule import import_things

I did ask this question, but it looks like I need to use the trick (if there is one) above for my code as well.

Any help is appreciated.

smac89 · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-08T01:43:21.890

3

import importlib

base_module = importlib.import_module('mymodule')
imported_things = {thing: getattr(base_module, thing) for thing in import_things}

imported_things['thing1']() # Function call

If you want to be able to use the things which have been imported globally, then do:

globals().update(imported_things)
thing1() # function call

To remove the imports, you can do

del thing1

or

del globals()['thing1']

Another useful operation you can do is to reload a module

edited Nov 08 '16 at 01:43

answered Nov 08 '16 at 01:00

smac89

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This imports modules from the package. I need the ability to import methods and classes from the module. – flashburn Nov 08 '16 at 01:07
Another question. How would I unimport them? Is there a way to do it? – flashburn Nov 08 '16 at 01:35
@flashburn see comment – smac89 Nov 08 '16 at 01:43
This is not exactly what I'm looking for. And I don't know if it is possible in `python` at all. I'm would like to unload those things from memory and not reload them. Is it possible? – flashburn Nov 08 '16 at 01:45
@flashburn I'm not sure I'm following you. If you `del` something in python, all references to it become invalid. Maybe you need to ask a different question – smac89 Nov 08 '16 at 01:49
No I think I got. – flashburn Nov 08 '16 at 01:52

import only some parts of a module, but list those parts as strings

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