Python packaging - Top level import behaving strangely

Question

I am currently having a problem with python packaging and references to that.

My structure is as follows:

code/
    package/
        A/
            __init__.py
            a.py
            aa.py
        B/
            __init__.py
            b.py
            bb.py
        C/
            __init__.py
            b.py
            bb.py
        __init__.py     #1
documentation/
    ...
other_stuff/
    ...

(All __init__.py are empty)

According to everything I have read, I should be able to reference and import things like this (in a.py):

from package.B.bb import whatever

However, this does not work. When I duplicate the outer __init__.py to the 'code' folder, I can import things like this, however:

from code.package.B.bb import whatever

This is obviously non-ideal for most actual uses.

What is it I can do to achieve my target behaviour? (I'm assuming it's something simple which I am just missing)

(Some more details: I am using Python 2.7 and PyCharm 4.03)

Answer 1

You have the parent directory of code listed on sys.path, but you need to have the code directory *itselfadded tosys.path`.

In other words, you need to have /full/path/for/code in sys.path, not just /full/path/for.

Note that Python automatically adds the current working directory or the parent directory of a script to sys.path; see the various options listed in the Command Line Interface Options documentation.

For example, a Python script located inside code, when run with python path/for/code/script.py will have the code directory added to sys.path for that run.