What are good rules of thumb for Python imports

Question

I am a little confused by the ways in which you import modules in Python.

import X
import X as Y
from A import B

Should imports happen at a module level or a method/function level? Or is it in the __init__.py or in the module code itself?

Answer 1

I would normally use import X on module level. If you only need a single object from a module, use from X import Y.

Only use import X as Y in case you're otherwise confronted with a name clash or something.

Try something like this:

def main():
  import sys
  if len(sys.argv) > 1:
     pass