How to call 'from x import *' where x is a variable in Python

Question

I am running several python scripts that are exactly the same except for a prefix on the variables. (Just for clarity, I am working with Tweepy and the Twitter API).

I have named each API credential xx_apicred.py, yy_apicred.py, etc, and these are saved as a separate file in the folder.

Also, I have tables named xx_info, yy_info, etc. This part is easy to change through string manipulation.

I would like to change this so that it is one file where I pass the xx string as an argument. This works for everything except the from xx_cred import*

When I replace it with a string variable, I get the error that ImportError: No module named 'var'

Is there a way I can import through a variable?

Answer 1

This would allow strings as module names:

import importlib

cred = importlib.import_module('{}_cred'.format(impl))

Where impl is the chosen implementation 'xx' or 'yy'.

Multiple Python libraries use this trick (tornado, rethinkdb...)

Now use like this:

cred.module_var

If you really want the effect of from module import * use:

variables = {name: value for name, value in vars(cred).items()
             if not name.startswith('__')}
globals().update(variables)

But import * is not recommended.