How to access a builtin module in Python when there is a local module with the same name?

Question

How can a built-in module (say math) be accessed when a file prog.py is placed in the same directory as a local module with the same name (math.py)?

I'm asking this question because I would like to create a package uncertainties that one can use as

import uncertainties
from uncertainties.math import *

Thus, there is a local math module inside the uncertainties directory. The problem is that I want to access the built-in math module from uncertainties/__init__.py.

I prefer not to rename uncertainties.math because this module is precisely intended to replace functions from the math module (with equivalents that handle numerical uncertainties).

PS: this question pertains to the module I wrote for performing calculations with uncertainties while taking into account correlations between variables.

Answer 1

Why can't you rename your local module again?

Clearly, it's not a "total" replacement, if you still need things from the installed uncertainties.

Since it's a partial replacement, you should not give it the same name.

What's different? What's the same? Pick a better name based on that.

Answer 2

You are looking for Absolute/Relative imports, available with 2.5 and upward.

http://docs.python.org/whatsnew/2.5.html#pep-328

In Python 2.5, you can switch import‘s behaviour to absolute imports using a from __future__ import absolute_import directive. This absolute- import behaviour will become the default in a future version (probably Python 2.7). Once absolute imports are the default, import math will always find the standard library’s version. It’s suggested that users should begin using absolute imports as much as possible, so it’s preferable to begin writing from pkg import string in your code.

Relative imports are still possible by adding a leading period to the module name when using the from ... import form:

from __future__ import absolute_import
# Import uncertainties.math
from . import math as local_math
import math as sys_math