python – Importing files from different folder

python – Importing files from different folder

Note: This answer was intended for a very specific question. For most programmers coming here from a search engine, this is not the answer you are looking for. Typically you would structure your files into packages (see other answers) instead of modifying the search path.

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By default, you cant. When importing a file, Python only searches the directory that the entry-point script is running from and sys.path which includes locations such as the package installation directory (its actually a little more complex than this, but this covers most cases).

However, you can add to the Python path at runtime:

# some_file.py
import sys
# insert at 1, 0 is the script path (or  in REPL)
sys.path.insert(1, /path/to/application/app/folder)

import file

Nothing wrong with:

from application.app.folder.file import func_name

Just make sure folder also contains an __init__.py, this allows it to be included as a package. Not sure why the other answers talk about PYTHONPATH.

python – Importing files from different folder

When modules are in parallel locations, as in the question:

application/app2/some_folder/some_file.py
application/app2/another_folder/another_file.py

This shorthand makes one module visible to the other:

import sys
sys.path.append(../)