Python - import in if

Question

I wrote little wrapper for urllib (python3). Is it proper and safe to import module in if?

if self.response_encodi         


        

Answer 1

This is a reasonably common idiom actually. You'll sometimes see it to pick between different modules:

if system == 'linux':
   import linuxdeps as deps
elif system == 'win32':
   import win32deps as deps

Then, assuming both linuxdeps and win32deps have the same functions, you can just use it:

deps.func()

This is even used to get os.path in the standard library (some of the source code for os follows):

if 'posix' in _names:
    name = 'posix'
    linesep = '\n'
    from posix import *
    try:
        from posix import _exit
    except ImportError:
        pass
    import posixpath as path

    import posix
    __all__.extend(_get_exports_list(posix))
    del posix

elif 'nt' in _names:
    name = 'nt'
    linesep = '\r\n'
    from nt import *
    try:
        from nt import _exit
    except ImportError:
        pass
    import ntpath as path

    import nt
    __all__.extend(_get_exports_list(nt))
    del nt