Coping with cyclic imports

[Dave Angel]

On 07/04/2013 11:11 AM, kanchan.n.mahajan at gmail.com wrote:
> On Thursday, July 4, 2013 5:03:20 PM UTC+2, Oscar Benjamin wrote:
>> On 4 July 2013 13:48,  <kanchan.n.mahajan at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Tuesday, April 8, 2008 10:06:46 PM UTC+2, Torsten Bronger wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>>>
>>
>>> If you do "import foo" inside bar and "import bar" inside foo, it will work fine. By the time anything actually runs, both modules will be fully loaded and will have references to each other.
>>
>>>
>>
>>> The problem is when instead you do "from foo import abc" and "from bar import xyz". Because now each module requires the other module to already be compiled (so that the name we are importing exists) before it can be compiled.
>>
>>>
>>
>>> from
>>
>>> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/744373/circular-or-cyclic-imports-in-python
>>
>>
>>
>> Is there some reason you're responding to a post from 5 years ago?
>>
>>
>>
>> Or is it just a joke that you've created a cyclic import advice link
>>
>> by referring to a SO question where the top answer is actually a quote
>>
>> linking back to the previous post in this same thread?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Oscar
>
> Well I am just a new to python
> and sorry i didnt see the date of the question
> and guessing if people find this post first then it would be helpful for them to get a good answer
>

But the StackOverflow answers for this question aren't good enough.

The problem is much more subtle than those answers imply, unless you 
make certain assumptons about the user's code.  And if I'm going to do 
that, the thing I'm going to figure is that the rational user avoids any 
cyclic imports, period.

if a.py imports b.py, then b.py is not permitted, directly or 
indirectly, to import a.py.  If it does, and something doesn't work, 
then 50 lashes with a wet noodle.

Whenever you find a cycle, try to move the common stuff into a 3rd 
module and have the first two import that one instead of each other.

Avoid having any non-trivial code at the top level, and in no case 
reference anything you've imported from there.  Move everything into 
functions, and don't have any class-static code or data initialization. 
  If you have to break any of these (such as referring to sys.argv), 
make sure that the module you're using is not one that's importing you.

Never, ever import the original script from another module.


-- 
DaveA