Python Modules

A module is like a code library that stores importable code. It can contain functions as well as variables of all types (arrays, dictionaries, objects etc.). There are several built-in modules in Python, which you can import whenever required. You may also create modules such as the one shown here.

To create a module, save the code you want in a file with the .py extension. For example, you can create module “mymodule.py” by saving the following code which contains a function named “greeting” and a dictionary named “person” into a file named “mymodule.py”.

Having created module “mymodule”, you may import it using the import command to access def “greeting” and the “person” dictionary:

In Python you can create an alias for a module. For instance, the following code uses the alias “mx” for “mymodule”:

Some modules can be quite large and it may impair performance if you import the entire library. In such cases you may choose to import only the functions or variables that you require. For instance, in the following code only the “person” dictionary is imported from “mymodule”: