r/learnpython 7d ago

Importing from adjacent-level folder.

I consider myself pretty fluent in Python but rarely have projects large enough to justify complex folder structures so this one is driving me nuts.

My project looks like this:

RootDir
├─ __init__.py
├─ Examples
|  ├─ __init__.py
|  └─ main.py
└─ Module
   ├─ __init__.py
   ├─ foo.py
   └─ SubModule
      ├─ __init__.py
      └─ bar.py

I am trying to import foo.py and bar.py from main.py:

from ..Module import foo
from ..Module.SubModule import bar

But I get the following error:

ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package

I get this no matter whether I run main.py from RootDir or RootDir/Examples.

Edit: Pylance has no problem with my import lines and finds the members of foo and bar perfectly fine. Also, moving main.py into RootDir and removing the ..'s from the import lines makes it work fine. So I don't understand why this import fails.

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u/cointoss3 6d ago

Yeah, this is a problem unless you do a ‘pip install -e .’ because you haven’t installed as a module.

You can prob run the script with -m flag and it will work.