ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package :(

Question

I'm attempting to import a script from my Items file but I keeps on getting an error

 from .Items.Quest1_items import *

gives

from .Items.Quest1_items import *
ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package

Process finished with exit code 1

Here my project tree, I'm running the script from the main.py file

Quest1/
|
|- main.py
|
|- Items/
| |- __init__.py
| |- Quest1_items.py

Solution 1

Remove the dot from the beginning. Relative paths with respect to main.py are found automatically.

from Items.Quest1_items import *

Solution 2

You can only perform relative import (ie., starting with a dot), inside a package that you import. For instance, imagine the situation:

project/
├ main.py
├ mylib/
├ __init__.py
│ ├ module1.py
│ └ module2.py

in main.py, you would have import mylib or from mylib import *, but inside module1.py, you could have from . import module2, because here the . stands for mylib (which is a python package, because you imported it within main.py).

So, the solution is simply remove the dot, it's not useful in your situation.

Solution 3

To put it simply: if you use relative import, you can run the file you want to run with 'python -m your_module_path' on the two layers above the outermost file used by your code.

Like the following, if you want to run run.py, you need to go to two layers above it, then run python -m dir1.dir2.run(without .py).

.../dir1/dir2/
    -test
        -test1.py
            from .test2 import *
        -test2.py
    -run.py
        from .test.test1 import *