How to avoid "Attempted relative import with no known parent package" with this simple package?

Question

Inside packagetest/, I have these four files:

__init__.py:
```
class TestError(Exception):
    pass
```

__main__.py:

from . import TestError
from .abc import defgh
from .ijk.lmn import opq

abc/__init__.py:
```
def defgh():
    pass
```
ijk/lmn.py:
```
def opq():
    pass
```

When running __main__.py, I get this error:

File "D:\packagetest_main_.py", line 1, in
from . import TestError
ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package

Why does from . import TestError generate an error here?

How to solve this problem here and modify the code as little as possible?

I've already read Relative imports in Python 3 but I don't see how to modify my code here to make it work.

A package is to be imported. In the Python console outside the parent folder `packagetest` do an `import packagetest`. If you arbitrarily run (directly) scripts from inside your package, you will almost always get import errors. — progmatico, Nov 03 '20 at 14:44

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 08 '21 at 15:15

3

One solution seems to move everything in a parent directory parent/ :

parent/
  |- test.py
  |- packagetest/
       |- __init__.py
       |- __main__.py
       |- abc/
           |- __init__.py
       |- ijk/
           |- lmn.py

Then import the package inside parent/test.py:

import packagetest

and then it works.

edited Sep 08 '21 at 15:15

Martijn Pieters

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answered Nov 04 '20 at 09:55

Basj

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How to avoid "Attempted relative import with no known parent package" with this simple package?

1 Answers1