``import plone.api`` vs ``from plone import api``

Development
1

Which one do you prefer:
import plone.api

or:
from plone import api

  • import plone.api
  • from plone import api

0 voters

2

I usually prefer import plone.api and in general I try to avoid from X import Y...personal taste and a highly opionated issue.

1 Like
3

Me too.
An API can be for anything, but plone.api.user.get() makes it very clear what is meant.
Also It's easier to do a grep -Ri plone.api.
But if it was a longer import I wouldn't like the import plone.api form.

Plus I agree, this is highly opinionated.

4

I use from ... import ... because I like shortening code as much as possible.

5 Likes
5

@fulv good point

6

In reality, we all use likely both approaches. Perhaps rule of thumb: if you need only a few symbols from a particular import, you use "from x import y"...when you need a lot of symbols (e.g. plone.api, zope.schema) then you use "import x"..but what few and lot means...personal preferences and personal attitudes..

7

Same here. As i am following the the PEP8 guidelines with a line length of 79 characters its quite useful to shorten the code even if its only one word.

8

What's the context here? Pycharm has always had trouble with plone.api for me. The least problematic is e.g. from plone.api import portal. But I see those as Pycharm issues not plone.api namespace issues. If it weren't buggy I'd prefer "import plone.api" to prevent any namespace issues with other api libraries.