import vs __import__( ) vs importlib.import_module( )?

Question

I noticed Flask was using Werkzeug to __import__ a module, and I was a little confused. I went and checked out the docs on it and saw that it seems to give you

Answer 1

__import__(import_name), so I don't see how that's any different from just using the import statement

Both __import__() and importlib.import_module() allow you to import a module when you have the module name as a string. You cannot write:

x = 're'
import x

or you'll get:

 File "1.py", line 3, in 
 import x ImportError: No module named x