Import Variable from Python FilePath

Question

I'm writing a clean up script from one of our applications and I need a few variables from a python file in a separate directory.

Now normally I would go:

from myfile import myvariable
print myvariable

However this doesn't work for files outside of the directory. I'd like a more targeted solution than:

sys.path.append('/path/to/my/dir)
from myfile import myvariable

As this directory has a lot of other files, unfortunately it doesn't seem like module = __import__('/path/to/myfile.py') works either. Any suggestions. I'm using python 2.7

EDIT, this path is unfortunately a string from os.path.join(latest, "myfile.py")

Wokpak · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-21 08:08:17Z

5

You can do a more targeted import using the imp module. While it has a few functions, I found the only one that allowed me access to internal variables was load_source.

import imp
import os

filename = 'variables_file.py'
path = '/path_to_file/'

full_path = os.path.join(path_to_file, filename)

foo = imp.load_source(filename, full_path)

print foo.variable_a
print foo.variable_b
...

answered Jul 21, 2016 at 8:08

Wokpak

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Peter · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-28 12:52:30Z

1

Note that the imp module was deprecated with Python 3.

The equivalent can be done with importlib.

import importlib.util

spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location('myfile', '/path/to/myfile.py')
mod = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
spec.loader.exec_module(mod)

print(mod.variable_a)
print(mod.variable_b)

answered 15 hours ago

Peter

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Abdul Rameez K R · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-28 13:04:49Z

0

The Cleanest way to use with using Python 2.7

import imp
module = imp.load_source("myfile", os.path.join(latest, "myfile.py"))
print(module.myvariable)

answered 15 hours ago

Abdul Rameez K R

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1 Comment

Dan Getz 10 hours ago

That seems to be what the accepted answer already said. Did you have anything new to add?

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