Relative import problems in Python 3

Question

Python imports drive me crazy (my experience with python imports sometime doesn\'t correspond at all to idiom \'Explicit is better than implicit\' :( ):

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Answer 1

Your update emulates what the absolute import does: import package1.module1 if you do it while module1 being imported. If you'd like to use a dynamic parent package name then to import module1 in the module2.py:

import importlib
module1 = importlib.import_module('.module1', __package__)

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I need circular imports. A function in module1 asserts that one of its parameter is instance of a class defined in module2 and viceversa.

You could move one the classes to a separate module to resolve the circular dependency or make the import at a function level if you don't want to use absolute imports.

.
├── start.py
#       from package1 import module1
└── package1
    ├── __init__.py
#           print("Init package1")
#           from . import module1, module2
    ├── c1.py
#           print("Init package1.c1")
#           class C1:
#               pass
    ├── module1.py
#           print("Init package1.module1")
#           from .c1 import C1
#           from .module2 import C2
    └── module2.py
#           print("Init package1.module2")
#           from .c1 import C1
#           class C2:
#               pass
#           def f():
#               from .module1 import C1

Output

Init package1
Init package1.module1
Init package1.c1
Init package1.module2

Another option that might be simpler than refactoring out c1.py is to merge module{1,2}.py into a single common.py. module{1,2}.py make the imports from common in this case.