Unable to import beautifulsoup in python

Question

I'm using Python.7.10 and have installed beautifulsoup using pip. The package was installed successfully. But when I'm trying to import beautifulsoup, I'm getting this error:

ImportError: No module named beautifulsoup

I checked the list of my installed modules and I found the beautifulsoup module in the installed modules list:

Solution

You installed BeautifulSoup version 3; the module is called BeautifulSoup with capital B and S:

from BeautifulSoup import BeautifulSoup

See the Quickstart documentation.

You really want to upgrade to BeautifulSoup 4. BeautifulSoup 3 was discontinued in 2012.

To install version 4, use:

pip install beautifulsoup4

and import bs4:

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

Do study the project documentation before continuing however.

Comments

[Felipe]

Why do I have to import beautifulsoup4 from bs4 if the module name is beautifulsoup4? I am used to install a package and import it directly. Please, forgive me if this is a stupid a question.

[Martijn Pieters]

@Felipe: the PyPI project name is beautifulsoup4. The project name and the module(s) the project installs do not have to match. A project can contain more than one top-level name too. Most PyPI projects have names matching the module they install, but not all.

[Martijn Pieters]

@Felipe: see Are there rules for naming single-module Python packages? for some more examples.

[Felipe]

Thank you so much, @Martijn. I did not know that and I will take a look at the link you provided.