I should add (that as I understand it), when you do a 'from foo import blah', or 'from foo import *', this is doing a *copy* (effectively) of that module's attributes into the current namespace. Doing "import foo" or "import foo as goo" is keeping a *reference *to the imported module rather than a copy.
If you use the 'from import' system, changes made to attrs of the imported module *won't* be seen by any other module that imported it. If you do just an 'import' on a module (or 'import ... as ...'), then changes made to attrs on the imported module *will *be seen by othe modules that import it as well. I hope that is somewhat clear. ;) On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 8:35 AM, Lowell Tackett <lowelltack...@yahoo.com>wrote: > If I might offer one small comment... > > It seems to me that this argument also goes to a code readability issue; > ergo, if you choose "from foobar..." as opposed to "import foobar", then > from that point on you only need employ foobar's methods in your code, and > they are not alway easily recognizable. i.e, by importing foobar, you will > always prefix a method with its' parent module name, which [I think] makes > the code more understandable. > > From the virtual desk of Lowell Tackett > > > --- On *Sat, 1/9/10, Alan Gauld <alan.ga...@btinternet.com>* wrote: > > > From: Alan Gauld <alan.ga...@btinternet.com> > Subject: Re: [Tutor] Question on "import foobar" vs "from foobar import *" > To: tutor@python.org > Date: Saturday, January 9, 2010, 10:21 AM > > > > "Rob Cherry" <pythontu...@lxrb.com<http://mc/compose?to=pythontu...@lxrb.com>> > wrote > > > Extending on this advice somewhat - is it *ever* correct to "import > foobar". > > Yes, it is *usually* correct to "import foobar" and rarely correct to "from > foobar". > The exception being if you only need one or two names from foobar, but > usually you need a lot more, in which case use import foobar. > > To save typing you can give foobar a shorter name: > > import foobar as fb > > For some reason that convenience feature doesn't get mentioned > all that often but I use it a lot. > > HTH, > > > -- Alan Gauld > Author of the Learn to Program web site > http://www.alan-g.me.uk/ > > >
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