How To Import Another Class From a Different Director in Python

Question

This is a question I have seen asked in many places, but not answered fully. I am using Python 3.7+. I want to understand how to import a class into another file which is in any subdirectory. For example, if I have the following:

App
  |
  Trending
        | 
        __init__.py
        Trending.py (holds Trending class, and get_trending function)
        TrendingUtils
              |
              __init__.py
              TrendingUtils.py (holds TrendingUtils class and get_trend_utils function)
   Utils
        |
        __init__.py
        Utils.py (holds Utils class, get_utils function)
   Top
      |
       __init__.py
       Top.py (holds Top class and get_top function)
       TopUtils
           | 
           __init__.py
           TopUtils.py (holds TopUtils class and get_top_utils function)
   __init__.py

How can I import the get_trending_utils function in the Trending.py file?
How can I import the get_trending_utils function in the Utils.py file?
How can I import the get_trending_utils function in the TopUtils.py file?
How can I use Utils.py (and its functions) in both Trending.py and Top.py?
How can I use get_top_utils in Trending.py?

The same questions go the deeper in subdirectories we go. I have read in different places that using the sys module can achieve this, but it seems clunky and not like best practice. I would like to do something like this, if possible:

In Trending.py:

import TrendingUtils
import Utils

var = TrendingUtils.get_trend_utils()
utils = Utils.get_utils()

also:

In Top.py

import Utils
import TrendingUtils
Import TopUtils

var1 = TrendingUtils.get_trend_utils()
var2 = Utils.get_utils()
var3 = TopUtils.get_top_utils.py

in TopUtils.py

from .. import TrendingUtils
from . import Top

var1 = TrendingUtils.get_trending_utils()
var2 = Top.get_top()

The init.py files are all emppty files. I have also seen that adding '.' will move up one directory, but trying something like

in Top.py

from . import Utils
from Trending import TrendingUtils

Also gives me errors. I have tried all possible combinations of the above as I can think of. I have also tried adding imports to the init.py files, but I keep getting the import errors. The only solution that seems to work is doing something like:

In Trending.py

PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(
                  os.path.dirname(__file__), 
                  os.pardir)
)
sys.path.append(PROJECT_ROOT)
from Utils import get_utils

Again, this seems very clunky and dirty, and more importantly, not scalable to other OSs and other systems/computers. There must be a better way and I am just missing it. Thank you so much for the help.

How To Import Another Class From a Different Director in Python

0 Answers