Course Code: CSD106A

Course Title: Programming in Python

Lecture No. 24&25 :

Modules and Libraries in Python
Delivered by: Dr. Anitha Kumari S D

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Lecture Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lecture, student will be able to

• Understand the concept of modules and libraries in python

• Use modular programming using functions

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Contents

• Modules, User-defined modules, Standard modules, Libraries

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Structure of Python program
• Python program consists of multiple text files containing Python statements

• Program is structured as main file (top-level file) along with zero or more
supplemental files known as modules in Python

• Main file: Main flow of control of program

• Module files define tools intended for use in other files

• A file import a module to gain access to the tools it defines

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Structure of Python program

Ref: Learning Python by Mark Lutz 5

Modules in Python
• Modular programming: Segmenting a single, complicated coding task (program) into
multiple, simpler, easier-to-manage sub-tasks

• A program can be divided into individual components/sub-tasks known as modules

• A module is a file containing Python definitions and statements

• Any single Python file with the *.py extension can be called as module

• It contains a set of functions, classes and variables that can be used by other Python
programs

• Definitions from a module can be imported into other modules or into the main module

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Modules in Python
Modules can be defined in Python in 3 ways:

• Python allows for the creation of modules by the user

• Module can be written in C programming language and then dynamically inserted

at run-time

• A built-in module inherently included in the interpreter

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Modules in Python
Defining/Creating a module in Python:

# module definition

# function square will square the number passed as the input

>>>def square(number):

result=number**2

return result

• Save this module as example_module.py file

• Module is created
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Modules in Python
Importing a module in Python: Functions from one module can be imported to
another program/module using the keyword import
# importing the function square to another file or program
>>>import example_module # module is imported
# to call the function square() within the module
>>>x=example_module.square(6) # use a dot operator to call the respective
function
>>>print('The output of the square fn in module is ', x)
Output is : The output of the square fn in module is 36
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Importing modules in Python program
• file b.py defines a function spam for external use

>>>def spam(text):

print(text)

• If a.py wants to use function spam:

>>>import b # This statement gives the file a.py access to the file b.py or it means
load b.py and give access to all its attributes

>>>b.spam(‘python’) # Fetch the value of the name spam(here function) that is

inside the file b.py
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Standard Modules in Python
• Several standard modules for Python (Can be seen by typing >>>help('modules’))

• To get more information about any module (>>> help(module name))

>>>help('matplotlib’)

• Standard modules can be imported using an import statement

>>> import math # This statement imports/fetches a standard Python module

math as a whole

>>>print(math.pi) #Printing the value of pi within the module math

Out: 3.141592653589793
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Standard Modules in Python
>>>import math

>>>dir(math)

• Built-in function dir() is used to find out which names a module defines

• Eg: 'acos’, 'acosh’, 'asin’, 'asinh’, 'atan’, 'atan2’, 'atanh’ etc

• While importing a module, its name can be changed

>>>import math as mt # here, the math module is imported as mt

>>>print( "The value of pi is ", mt.pi )

Output is: The value of pi is 3.141592653589793

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Importing modules in a Python program
• The name of the module is stored inside a constant __name__(prefix and suffix
have two underscores)

>>>import math,cmath

>>>print(math.__name__)

math

Module can also be imported as :

>>>import math as calculation

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Standard Modules in Python
Import statement can be used in two ways to import modules in a program:

1. Import entire module import <module name>

>>>import math

>>>import math, numpy

The way of referring to an object in a module is called dot notation eg: math.sqrt()

2. Import specific names from a module without importing the module as a

whole from <module name> import <object name>

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from...import Statement in Python
To import selected objects from <module name> import <object>

>>>from math import sqrt

If this command is used for importing, do not use module name with imported object as
imported object is a part of the program

>>>print(pi) #Do not use print(math.pi)

To import multiple objects

>>>from math import pi, sqrt, pow

To import all objects of a module

>>>from math import * # All variables can be used without prefixing module name
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dir() Built-in Function in Python
dir(): To identify names declared within a module

>>>print(dir(math), end=‘ ‘)

print(dir(math), end=' ')

['__doc__', '__loader__', '__name__', '__package__', '__spec__', 'acos', 'acosh', 'asin',

'asinh', 'atan', 'atan2', 'atanh', 'cbrt', 'ceil', 'comb', 'copysign', 'cos', 'cosh', 'degrees', 'dist',
'e', 'erf', 'erfc', 'exp', 'exp2', 'expm1', 'fabs', 'factorial', 'floor', 'fmod', 'frexp', 'fsum',
'gamma', 'gcd', 'hypot', 'inf', 'isclose', 'isfinite', 'isinf', 'isnan', 'isqrt', 'lcm', 'ldexp', 'lgamma',
'log', 'log10', 'log1p', 'log2', 'modf', 'nan', 'nextafter', 'perm', 'pi', 'pow', 'prod', 'radians',
'remainder', 'sin', 'sinh', 'sqrt', 'tan', 'tanh', 'tau', 'trunc', 'ulp’]
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dir() Built-in Function in Python
['__doc__', '__loader__', '__name__', '__package__', '__spec__', 'acos', 'acosh',
'asin', 'asinh', 'atan’,
>>>print(math.__doc__)
Output: This module provides access to the mathematical functions defined by the
C standard.
>>>print(math.__name__)
Output: math
>>>print(math.sin)
Output: <built-in function sin>
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Namespaces in Python
• Objects are represented by names or identifiers called variables

• A namespace is a dictionary containing the names of variables (keys) and the

objects that go with them (values)

• Local and global namespace variables can be accessed by a Python statement

• When two variables with the same name are local and global, the local variable
takes the role of the global variable

• Global statement should be used before a value is assigned to a global variable

inside of a function
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Namespaces in Python
>>>Number = 204
>>>def AddNumber():
global Number
Number = Number+200
print('The value of the number is ', Number)
print('Out side the function the value of number is ', Number)
AddNumber()
Output: Out side the function the value of number is 204
The value of the number is 404
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Namespaces in Python
>>>Number = 204
>>>def AddNumber():
Number = Number+200
print('The value of the number is ', Number)
print('Out side the function the value of number is ', Number)
AddNumber()
Output: Out side the function the value of number is 204
line 3 in AddNumber (Number = Number+200)
UnboundLocalError: cannot access local variable 'Number' where it is not associated
with a value
This error occurs as the value of the local variable is not declared or not declared as
global
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Packages in Python
• Structures Python’s module namespace by using “dotted module names”
• Module name A.B designates a submodule named B in a package named A
• Example: A collection of modules handling sound data may have different
formats, effects, filters etc.
• Package can import individual modules from the package eg: sound.effects.echo
• This loads the submodule sound.effects.echo
• Alternate way is
>>>from sound.effects import echo
• Import statement first tests whether the item is defined in the package 21
Libraries in Python
• Some modules imported to the program are provided by Python itself and not
the files which we code

• Python has large collection of utility modules known as standard library

• Example: random module function randint()

>>>from random import randint()

>>>randint(1,6)

Out: 5

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Libraries in Python
• A library refers to a collection of modules that together cater to a specific type of
applications

• Commonly used Python libraries include:

• Python standard library

• NumPy library

• SciPy library

• tkinter library

• Matplotlib library
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Libraries in Python
• Python standard library: Available in default, no need to import it separately

• Other libraries are third party packages and need to be imported

• Commonly used Python libraries include:

• Python standard library

• NumPy library

• SciPy library

• tkinter library

• Matplotlib library
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Libraries in Python
Python standard library includes:

math module: Mathematical functions eg: math.factorial(n)

cmath module: Mathematical functions for complex numbers eg: cmath.sqrt()

random module: Generate pseudo-random numbers eg: random.randint(3,17)

statistics module: Statistical functions eg: statistics.mean([1, 2, 3, 4, 4])

urllib module: URL handling functions to access websites within the program

eg: urllib.request.urlopen

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Other Libraries in Python
NumPy library : Provides advance math functionalities and tools to create numeric
arrays

SciPy library: Offers algorithmic and mathematical tools for scientific calculations

tkinter library: Python user interface toolkit and helps to create user-friendly GUI
interface for different types of applications

Matplotlib library: Functions and tools to produce plots, charts, graphs

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Summary
• A program can be divided into individual components/units known as modules
• A module is a file containing Python definitions and statements
• Any single Python file with the .py extension can be called as module
• Python provides import statement to import modules as a whole in a program
import math
• Import specific names from a module without importing the module as a whole
also is possible from math import sqrt
• A library refers to a collection of modules that together cater to a specific type of
applications
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References
https://www.javatpoint.com/python-modules

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