how to import all files from different folder in Python

Question

with __init__.py in the directory, I was able to import it by

from subdirectory.file import *

But I wish to import every file in that subdirectory; so I tried

from subdirectory.* import *

which did not work. Any suggestions?

Maybe I was a bit quick with my answer, is it the case that for each module in subdirectory you want to perform from module import * (for a variable number of modules)? Although I wouldn't recommend this because it really clutters your namespace. It's better to leave things scoped. — a_guest
– a_guest, Commented Jun 29, 2017 at 13:12
In my subdirectory, I have files which contain only one function. I would be adding more files later on and I would like my code to automatically import everything. Plus I have 2 directories like that. I think your answer should solve my problem except I would have to import them manually and add import everytime I add a file to the subdirectory. — MoneyBall
– MoneyBall, Commented Jun 29, 2017 at 13:23

ninapberry · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-07 15:33:36Z

Found this method after trying some different solutions (if you have a folder named 'folder' in adjacent dir):

for entry in os.scandir('folder'): if entry.is_file(): string = f'from folder import {entry.name}'[:-3] exec (string)

I like this one because I could easily filter with adding this into loop: if entry.name[0] != '_':

a_guest · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-29 13:45:31Z

If you have the following structure:

$ tree subdirectory/ subdirectory/ ├── file1.py ├── file2.py └── file3.py

and you want a program to automatically pick up every module which is located in this subdirectory and process it in a certain way you could achieve it as follows:

import glob # Get file paths of all modules. modules = glob.glob('subdirectory/*.py') # Dynamically load those modules here.

For how to dynamically load a module see this question.

In your subdirectory/__init__.py you can import all local modules via:

from . import file1 from . import file2 # And so on.

You can import the content of local modules via

from .file1 import * # And so on.

Then you can import those modules (or the contents) via

from subdirectory import *

With the attribute __all__ in __init__.py you can control what exactly will be imported during a from ... import * statement. So if you don't want file2.py to be imported for example you could do:

__all__ = ['file1', 'file3', ...]

You can access those modules via

import subdirectory from subdirectory import * for name in subdirectory.__all__: module = locals()[name]

How do I use __all__ exactly? __all__ seems like a list of strings of file names. Do iterate __all__ in a for loop and do import?
@MoneyBall I edited my answer. You can use from .file import * in __init__.py if you really want to import all the content. Note that if the different modules have attributes with the same name they will shadow each other. You might also want to take a look at this answer.
There won't be any overlaps since every function is same as its file name. sorry but i'm still confused. You have module = locals()[name]. What exactly is this line doing?
Also is there an easier way to import everything in __init__.py? Like from * import *?
@MoneyBall from subdirectory import * brings the different modules in the local namespace (locals()). module = locals()[name] gives you the module of the specific name. You can then access its attributes via getattr(module, name) (if the function has the same name as the module). If you want your program to automatically realize new modules then you could parse the directory via glob.glob('subdirectory/*.py') and dynamically load those modules.

Ofer Sadan · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-29 13:13:38Z

Your __init__.py file should look like this:

from file1 import * from file2 import *

And then you can do:

from subdirectory import *

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