Python: relatively import the containing package

Question

I have the following package structure (drastically simplified from a real use case):

mypackage/
├── __init__.py
├── mod1.py
│   ├── def func1(): return 1
│   └── ...
│
├── mod2.py
│   ├── def func2(): return 2
│   └── ...
└── mod3.py

with __init__.py like this

from .mod1 import *
from .mod2 import *

Now, in mod3.py I want to access the packages complete namespace with one alias like res = p.func1() + p.func2() and I want this to achieve this by one relative import statement. Is this possible?

I don't want an absolute import like import mypackage as p (because the code should be indifferent on renaming the package).

Note, this is related to but different from this unanswered question from 2009.

Destination

Answer 1

Generally you do not want to use asterisks while doing imports so you can use this while still using relative import:

from . import mod1

You can call the function like this:

mod1.func1()

PS: If you are using Python 3 you are no longer required to use __init__.py to define packages.

Edit: If you want use common namespace for all those functions you have imported you could create a new module to use as a header file:

mypackage/
├── header.py
│   ├── from .mod1 import *
│   └── from .mod2 import *
├── mod1.py
│   ├── def func1(): return 1
│   └── ...
│
├── mod2.py
│   ├── def func2(): return 2
│   └── ...
└── mod3.py

And in mod3.py you can import header.py and use the functions in various ways:

from .header import *
val1 = func1()
val2 = func2()

from . import header
val1 = header.func1()
val2 = header.func2()

from . import header as p
val1 = p.func1()
val2 = p.func2()

Jackie

Thanks but this is not what I want. I want to access the whole package under one alias. Because in reality my package imports more than two modules (mod1 and mod2) and I don't want to keep track of which name comes from which module. – Destination

I edited my answer. I hope this solves your problem. – Jackie

Actually, I thought of this my self and still hope for a more elegant solution. But anyway it mainly does what I want. – Destination

Sorry that I couldn't be of more help :( – Jackie