What is the difference between import httplib and from httplib import *?

Question

I would like to know which is the difference between
import httplib and
from httplib import *
By the way i am using python 2.73.

Answer 1

With import httplib, you would have to do

httplib.HTTPConnection(host)

With from httplib import *, you could do

HTTPConnection(host)

It is considered better to specify what you are importing in the second method, as in from httplib import HTTPConnection

Answer 2

Here's the different, by example:

>>> import httplib
>>> SEE_OTHER
NameError: name 'SEE_OTHER' is not defined
>>> httplib.SEE_OTHER
303

>>> from httplib import *
>>> SEE_OTHER
303
>>> httplib.SEE_OTHER
NameError: name 'httplib' is not defined

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The from httplib import * is almost* never what you want, except possibly while experimenting with httplib in the interactive prompt.

Sometimes you want to import a few names out of a library—but in that case, specify the names explicitly:

from httplib import SEE_OTHER, MOVED_PERMANENTLY

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Both import the module, but the former creates a single new name, httplib, in your current globals, while the latter instead copies all of the globals from httplib into your current globals.**

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* "Almost" because there are a few good use cases even in scripts. For example, the idiomatic way to provide a Python implementation of a module with C accelerators is to end the Python script foo.py with from _foo import *.

** This isn't quite true, because of __all__ and various other details, but close enough for now.