import

Importing is the process of adding functions or other objects from other modules to support your program.

Imagine we wish to use the randint() function to choose a random number between 1 and 6, as though we were throwing a single six-sided die. The randint() function is part of the random module. There are two ways we can go:

• import the whole module
• import just the objects we need

Import module

import random

num = random.randint(1,6)
print(num)

We can use a different name for the module in our program, which is useful if the original name is really long, or we happen to have two modules with the same name.

import random as ran

num = ran.randint(1,6)
print(num)

Import just what we need

By importing just the objects we need from a module, we don’t need to use the name of the module anymore.

from random import randint

num = randint(1,6)
print(num)

We can rename objects for convenience or to avoid name clashes.

from random import randint as throwDie

num = throwDie(1,6)
print(num)