Testing the availability of a module

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 02:52:08 -0600, Bo Peng wrote:

> Dear list,
> 
> Is there a better way than doing
> 
> try:
>    import aModule
> except:
>    has_aModule = False
> else:
>    has_aModule = True

Do you mean to catch every possible exception when importing aModule?

If you replace "except:" with "except ImportError:" then only actual
import errors will be caught. Any other errors in aModule (such as syntax
errors, etc. will still raise a exception as normal.


> The main concern here is that loading aModule is unnecessary (and may 
> take time).

If importing aModule is unnecessary, then just don't import it.

What are you trying to protect against?


-- 
Steven.