Finding a module's directory

Question

How can I find what directory a module has been imported from, as it needs to load a data file which is in the same directory.

edit:

combining several answers:

module_path = os.path.dirname(imp.find_module(self.__module__)[1])

got me what i wanted

Answer 1

If you want to modules directory by specifying module_name as string i.e. without actually importing the module then use

def get_dir(module_name):
    import os,imp
    (file, pathname, description) = imp.find_module(module_name)
    return os.path.dirname(pathname)

print get_dir('os')

output:

C:\Python26\lib

---

foo.py

def foo():
    print 'foo'

bar.py

import foo
import os
print os.path.dirname(foo.__file__)
foo.foo()

output:

C:\Documents and Settings\xxx\My Documents
foo