What is the recommended way in Julia to create a shared module?

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After some experiment and searching, I figured out 2 ways of creating a shared module that holds some constant values.

SCHEME A:

# in file sharedconstants.jl:
module sharedconstants
  kelvin = 273.15
end
# -------------------------


# in file main.jl:
include("./sharedconstants.jl");
using .sharedconstants
print(sharedconstants.kelvin, "\n");
# -------------------------

SCHEME B:

# in file sharedconstants.jl:
module sharedconstants
  kelvin = 273.15
end
# -------------------------


# in file main.jl:
import sharedconstants 
print(sharedconstants.kelvin, "\n");
# -------------------------

Scheme B does not always work and when it fails it throws the error of not finding sharedconstants in current Path. Plus, Scheme B requires the name of module (sharedconstants) the same as the trunk of the file name. I wonder which way of the above is better in terms of compiling and execution. Also is there any other approach to do the job? I transferred from FORTRAN and I am quite used to simply use sharedconstants in my code.

julia using global-variables import module
1 Answers

For performance reasons this should be a const (BTW module names use CamelNaming):

module SharedConstants2
    const kelvin = 273.15
end

Writing it this way makes it type-stable which results in huge performance difference:


julia> @btime sharedconstants.kelvin * 3
  18.574 ns (1 allocation: 16 bytes)
819.4499999999999

julia> @btime SharedConstants2.kelvin * 3
  0.001 ns (0 allocations: 0 bytes)
819.4499999999999

Regarding the question "where to place it" I would recommend doing a Julia package - start reading here: https://pkgdocs.julialang.org/v1/creating-packages/

Finally, you might have a look at the PhysicalConstants.jl package https://github.com/JuliaPhysics/PhysicalConstants.jl

user_99577100
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