If from a import b ; print b.c works, shouldn’t import a ; print a.b.c work too? Not necessarily, here is why.
To use an object in Python, the objects needs to be present in the namespace. To create a new entry in a module namespace, it is possible to either define the functions and classes or import them from a package or a module. Packages are also namespaces, the objects which are included in the current namespace when the package is imported are the objects which are defined and imported by the __init__.py module of the package. If __init__.py is empty for a package, importing the package does not make the modules in the package available.
Rule of thumb, if you don’t want surprises always import modules instead of packages, because with packages, what is imported depends on the __init__ package and changes.
Here is an example
~$ tree package
package
|-- blabi.py
|-- __init__.py
`-- shbonz
|-- __init__.py
`-- shekel.py
package and shbonz are packages (shbonz is a subpackage), which means they are filesystem directories with a file named __init__.py in it. Those can be empty files.
~$ cat package/__init__.py package/shbonz/__init__.py
~$
~$ # the __init__.py are just empty files
blabi et shekel are modules, they contain classes, functions and constants. Fore example, shekel defines a constant pi
~$ cat package/shbonz/shekel.py
pi=3.14
As the __init__.py files are empty, they do not import pi, it is not available when importing the packages:
~$ python -c 'import package; print package.shbonz.shekel.pi'
Traceback (most recent call last):
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'shbonz'
~$ python -c 'from package import shbonz; print shbonz.shekel.pi'
Traceback (most recent call last):
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'shekel'
The module, and not its parent packages must be imported, for the constant to be available:
~$ python -c ‘from package.shbonz import shekel; print shekel.pi’ 3.14
Now if the package’s __init__ module import the constant, it will be available:
~$ echo "import shbonz" > package/__init__.py
~$ echo "import shekel" > package/shbonz/__init__.py
~$ python -c 'import package;print package.shbonz.shekel.pi'
3.14
http://effbot.org/zone/import-confusion.htm
5 May 2010