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authorGeorg Brandl <georg@python.org>2008-12-05 15:55:41 (GMT)
committerGeorg Brandl <georg@python.org>2008-12-05 15:55:41 (GMT)
commit48367816e9eba2256a5d8976a4a7008198030f93 (patch)
treee4a807b1f4d9e79ae84a31f4eeea2f59f5e8f1e6 /Doc
parentf7d4874cc0a70e435e0a6cd9c6c2bbce44a35ae0 (diff)
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Manually merged r67583: move __import__ doc to the bottom.
Diffstat (limited to 'Doc')
-rw-r--r--Doc/library/functions.rst106
1 files changed, 53 insertions, 53 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/library/functions.rst b/Doc/library/functions.rst
index b49df65..cc0fe5a 100644
--- a/Doc/library/functions.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/functions.rst
@@ -8,59 +8,6 @@ The Python interpreter has a number of functions and types built into it that
are always available. They are listed here in alphabetical order.
-.. function:: __import__(name[, globals[, locals[, fromlist[, level]]]])
-
- .. index::
- statement: import
- module: imp
-
- .. note::
-
- This is an advanced function that is not needed in everyday Python
- programming.
-
- The function is invoked by the :keyword:`import` statement. It mainly exists
- so that you can replace it with another function that has a compatible
- interface, in order to change the semantics of the :keyword:`import`
- statement. See the built-in module :mod:`imp`, which defines some useful
- operations out of which you can build your own :func:`__import__` function.
-
- For example, the statement ``import spam`` results in the following call:
- ``__import__('spam', globals(), locals(), [], -1)``; the statement
- ``from spam.ham import eggs`` results in ``__import__('spam.ham', globals(),
- locals(), ['eggs'], -1)``. Note that even though ``locals()`` and ``['eggs']``
- are passed in as arguments, the :func:`__import__` function does not set the
- local variable named ``eggs``; this is done by subsequent code that is generated
- for the import statement. (In fact, the standard implementation does not use
- its *locals* argument at all, and uses its *globals* only to determine the
- package context of the :keyword:`import` statement.)
-
- When the *name* variable is of the form ``package.module``, normally, the
- top-level package (the name up till the first dot) is returned, *not* the
- module named by *name*. However, when a non-empty *fromlist* argument is
- given, the module named by *name* is returned. This is done for
- compatibility with the :term:`bytecode` generated for the different kinds of import
- statement; when using ``import spam.ham.eggs``, the top-level package
- :mod:`spam` must be placed in the importing namespace, but when using ``from
- spam.ham import eggs``, the ``spam.ham`` subpackage must be used to find the
- ``eggs`` variable. As a workaround for this behavior, use :func:`getattr` to
- extract the desired components. For example, you could define the following
- helper::
-
- def my_import(name):
- mod = __import__(name)
- components = name.split('.')
- for comp in components[1:]:
- mod = getattr(mod, comp)
- return mod
-
- *level* specifies whether to use absolute or relative imports. The default is
- ``-1`` which indicates both absolute and relative imports will be attempted.
- ``0`` means only perform absolute imports. Positive values for *level* indicate
- the number of parent directories to search relative to the directory of the
- module calling :func:`__import__`.
-
-
.. function:: abs(x)
Return the absolute value of a number. The argument may be an
@@ -1220,6 +1167,59 @@ are always available. They are listed here in alphabetical order.
True
+.. function:: __import__(name[, globals[, locals[, fromlist[, level]]]])
+
+ .. index::
+ statement: import
+ module: imp
+
+ .. note::
+
+ This is an advanced function that is not needed in everyday Python
+ programming.
+
+ The function is invoked by the :keyword:`import` statement. It mainly exists
+ so that you can replace it with another function that has a compatible
+ interface, in order to change the semantics of the :keyword:`import`
+ statement. See the built-in module :mod:`imp`, which defines some useful
+ operations out of which you can build your own :func:`__import__` function.
+
+ For example, the statement ``import spam`` results in the following call:
+ ``__import__('spam', globals(), locals(), [], -1)``; the statement
+ ``from spam.ham import eggs`` results in ``__import__('spam.ham', globals(),
+ locals(), ['eggs'], -1)``. Note that even though ``locals()`` and ``['eggs']``
+ are passed in as arguments, the :func:`__import__` function does not set the
+ local variable named ``eggs``; this is done by subsequent code that is generated
+ for the import statement. (In fact, the standard implementation does not use
+ its *locals* argument at all, and uses its *globals* only to determine the
+ package context of the :keyword:`import` statement.)
+
+ When the *name* variable is of the form ``package.module``, normally, the
+ top-level package (the name up till the first dot) is returned, *not* the
+ module named by *name*. However, when a non-empty *fromlist* argument is
+ given, the module named by *name* is returned. This is done for
+ compatibility with the :term:`bytecode` generated for the different kinds of import
+ statement; when using ``import spam.ham.eggs``, the top-level package
+ :mod:`spam` must be placed in the importing namespace, but when using ``from
+ spam.ham import eggs``, the ``spam.ham`` subpackage must be used to find the
+ ``eggs`` variable. As a workaround for this behavior, use :func:`getattr` to
+ extract the desired components. For example, you could define the following
+ helper::
+
+ def my_import(name):
+ mod = __import__(name)
+ components = name.split('.')
+ for comp in components[1:]:
+ mod = getattr(mod, comp)
+ return mod
+
+ *level* specifies whether to use absolute or relative imports. The default is
+ ``-1`` which indicates both absolute and relative imports will be attempted.
+ ``0`` means only perform absolute imports. Positive values for *level* indicate
+ the number of parent directories to search relative to the directory of the
+ module calling :func:`__import__`.
+
+
.. rubric:: Footnotes
.. [#] Specifying a buffer size currently has no effect on systems that don't have