Relative imports - ModuleNotFoundError No module named x

Question

I have these  two files:

1. test.py
2. config.py

These are the following functions stung to config.py:

config.py

debug = True

test.py

import config
print (config.debug)

But I am getting this error:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'config'

The py3 convention is to use absolute imports:

from . import config

However, this leads to the following error:

ImportError: cannot import name 'config'

 Can someone help me solve this?

Answer 1

The problem here is that you can't do relative imports from the file you execute since __main__ module is not a part of a package. 

Absolute imports - import something available on sys.path.

Relative imports - import something relative to the current module, must be a part of a package.

For you to understand it clearly here's an example:

.

./main.py

./ryan/__init__.py

./ryan/config.py

./ryan/test.py

Then update test.py:

# config.py

debug = True

# test.py

print(__name__)

After that try:

    # Trying to find module in the parent package

    from . import config

    print(config.debug)

    del config

except ImportError:

    print('Relative import failed')

Then try this:

    # Trying to find module on sys.path

    import config

    print(config.debug)

except ModuleNotFoundError:

    print('Absolute import failed')

# main.py

import ryan.test

After doing this try running test.py first:

$ python ryan/test.py

__main__

Relative import failed

True

At this stage import config should work, since the ryan folder will be added to sys.path.

I hope this helps.