Python: Import by string with pkgutil.resolve_name() - Adam Johnson (original) (raw)

2024-06-17Looking for an import...

Django and other frameworks often allow you to configure classes, functions, or modules to import using strings. To do the same in your own code, use pkgutil.resolve_name() from the standard library (added in Python 3.9):

In [1]: import pkgutil

In [2]: Path = pkgutil.resolve_name("pathlib:Path")

In [3]: Path('/') Out[3]: PosixPath('/')

The recommended syntax is <package>:<object>, where <package> defines the path to the module to import, and <object> defines the path within that module to look up. Dots are allowed in both, supporting things like:

In [12]: pkgutil.resolve_name("collections:deque") Out[12]: collections.deque

In [8]: pkgutil.resolve_name("pathlib:Path.home") Out[8]: <bound method Path.home of <class 'pathlib.Path'>>

In [11]: pkgutil.resolve_name("http.cookies") Out[11]: <module 'http.cookies' from '/.../http/cookies.py'>

Modules only with importlib.import_module()

If you only need to import modules by string reference, use importlib.import_module():

In [1]: import importlib

In [2]: importlib.import_module("pathlib") Out[2]: <module 'pathlib' from '/.../pathlib.py'>

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Tags: python