How can I import a Python module dynamically given the full path?
Importing programmatically
To programmatically import a module, use importlib.import_module().
import importlib
itertools = importlib.import_module('itertools')
Checking if a module can be imported
If you need to find out if a module can be imported without actually doing the import, then you should use importlib.util.find_spec().
Note that if name is a submodule (contains a dot), importlib.util.find_spec() will import the parent module.
import importlib.util
import sys
# For illustrative purposes.
name = 'itertools'
if name in sys.modules:
print(f"{name!r} already in sys.modules")
elif (spec := importlib.util.find_spec(name)) is not None:
# If you chose to perform the actual import ...
module = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
sys.modules[name] = module
spec.loader.exec_module(module)
print(f"{name!r} has been imported")
else:
print(f"can't find the {name!r} module")
Importing a source file directly
To import a Python source file directly, use the following recipe:
import importlib.util
import sys
# For illustrative purposes.
import tokenize
file_path = tokenize.__file__
module_name = tokenize.__name__
spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location(module_name, file_path)
module = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
sys.modules[module_name] = module
spec.loader.exec_module(module)
Implementing lazy imports
The example below shows how to implement lazy imports:
import importlib.util
import sys
def lazy_import(name):
spec = importlib.util.find_spec(name)
loader = importlib.util.LazyLoader(spec.loader)
spec.loader = loader
module = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
sys.modules[name] = module
loader.exec_module(module)
return module
lazy_typing = lazy_import("typing")
#lazy_typing is a real module object,
#but it is not loaded in memory yet.
lazy_typing.TYPE_CHECKING
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