Import local function from a module housed in another directory with relative imports in Jupyter Notebook using Python 3

Question

I have a directory structure similar to the following

meta_project
    project1
        __init__.py
        lib
            module.py
            __init__.py         


        

Answer 1

I had almost the same example as you in this notebook where I wanted to illustrate the usage of an adjacent module's function in a DRY manner.

My solution was to tell Python of that additional module import path by adding a snippet like this one to the notebook:

import os
import sys
module_path = os.path.abspath(os.path.join('..'))
if module_path not in sys.path:
    sys.path.append(module_path)

This allows you to import the desired function from the module hierarchy:

from project1.lib.module import function
# use the function normally
function(...)

Note that it is necessary to add empty __init__.py files to project1/ and lib/ folders if you don't have them already.