Python – Understanding ‘from . import XXXX’

see https://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/modules.html

In section 6.4.2. Intra-package References:

• If the import module in the same dir, use e.g: from . import core
• If the import module in the top dir, use e.g: from .. import core
• If the import module in the other subdir, use e.g: from ..other import core

Note: Starting with Python 2.5, in addition to the implicit relative imports, you can write explicit relative imports with the from module import name form of import statement. These explicit relative imports use leading dots to indicate the current and parent packages involved in the relative import. From the surround module.

There is a PEP for everything.

Quote from PEP8: Imports

Explicit relative imports are an acceptable alternative to absolute imports, especially when dealing with complex package layouts where using absolute imports would be unnecessarily verbose:

Guido's decision in PEP328 Imports: Multi-Line and Absolute/Relative

Copy Pasta from PEP328

Here's a sample package layout:

package/
    __init__.py
    subpackage1/
        __init__.py
        moduleX.py
        moduleY.py
    subpackage2/
        __init__.py
        moduleZ.py
    moduleA.py

Assuming that the current file is either moduleX.py or subpackage1/__init__.py , the following are all correct usages of the new syntax:

from .moduleY import spam
from .moduleY import spam as ham
from . import moduleY
from ..subpackage1 import moduleY
from ..subpackage2.moduleZ import eggs
from ..moduleA import foo
from ...package import bar
from ...sys import path