Style question: Importing modules from packages - 'from' vs 'as'

[Wolfgang Maier]

On 12/03/2014 12:02 PM, Chris Angelico wrote:
> When importing a module from a subpackage, it's sometimes convenient
> to refer to it throughout the code with a one-part name rather than
> two. I'm going to use 'os.path' for the examples, but my actual
> use-case is a custom package where the package name is, in the
> application, quite superfluous.
>
> Throughout the code, I want to refer to "path.split()",
> "path.isfile()", etc, without the "os." in front of them. I could do
> either of these:
>
> import os.path as path
> from os import path
>
> Which one would you recommend? Does it depend on context?
>

One argument not yet brought up by anyone else:

if you ever wanted to make the module part of your own package and turn 
the import into a relative one, only the second, but not the first form 
lets you replace the package name with . :

from . import path (while import .path is a SyntaxError, so you'd need a 
slightly more complicated rewrite).

Wolfgang