__init__.py usage for directories in Python

I use __init__.py in my project with the following structure :

project\
    project.py
    cfg.py
    __init__.py

    database\
       data.py
       __init__.py

    test\
       test_project.py
       __i开发者_Go百科nit__.py

All is OK when I need to see database\ modules in project.py with

from database.data import *

But if I need to have some test code inside the test_project.py, how to 'see' the database\ modules ?

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You have 3 options:

• use relative imports (from .. import database.data). I wouldn't recommend that one.
• append paths to sys.path in your code.
• use addsitedir() and .pth files. Here is how.

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Relative imports.

from .. import database.data

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If you run a script from the directory that contains project\, you can simply do from project.database.data import *, in test_project.py.

This is generally a good idea, because relative imports are officially discouraged:

Relative imports for intra-package imports are highly discouraged. Always use the absolute package path for all imports. Even now that PEP 328 [7] is fully implemented in Python 2.5, its style of explicit relative imports is actively discouraged; absolute imports are more portable and usually more readable.

Absolute imports like the one given above are encouraged.