Edit: based on a Ulf Rompe's comment, it is important you use "1" instead of "0", otherwise you will break sys.path.
I have been doing python for quite a while now (over a year), and I am always confused as to why people recommend you use sys.path.append()
instead of sys.path.insert()
. Let me demonstrate.
Let's say I am working on a module named PyWorkbooks (that is installed on my computer), but I am simultaneously working on a different module (let's say PyJob) that incorporates PyWorkbooks. As I'm working on PyJob I find errors in PyWorkbooks that I am correcting, so I would like to import a development version.
There are multiple ways to work on both (I could put my PyWorkbooks project inside of PyJob, for instance), but sometimes I will still need to play with the path. However, I cannot simply do a sys.path.append()
to the folder where PyWorkbooks is at. Why? Because python will find my installed PyWorkbooks first!
This is why you have to do a sys.path.insert(1, path_to_dev_pyworkbooks)
In summary:
sys.path.append(path_to_dev_pyworkbooks)
import PyWorkbooks # does NOT import dev pyworkbooks, imports installed one
or:
sys.path.insert(1, path_to_dev_pyworkbooks) # based on comments you should use **1 not 0**
import PyWorkbooks # imports correct file
This has caused a few hangups for me in the past, and I would really like it if we (as a community) started recommending sys.path.insert(1, path)
, as if you are manually inserting a path I think it is safe to say that that is the path you want to use!
Or do I have something wrong? It's a question that sometimes bothers me and I wanted it in the open!