Can I import a python module from a string in memory?

Question

I have a string of a python module stored in a variable (creds) that looks like this:

MY_API_KEY = "DerP12312"
ANOTHER_KEY = "123453)"

(Many more lines than just the 2, but all the same convention)

I'd like to import the values of that module into another class like so:

from creds import MY_API_KEY

A limitation is that I cannot write these contents to local storage. (I'd prefer not to do string disection based on /n and =)

Can I import these values directly from memory?

Ben Hoyt · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-01 16:40:51Z

2

Yep, you can use the exec function to execute a string of Python source code (by default it's executed in the current scope so those variables will be set globally):

>>> exec('MY_API_KEY = "DerP12312"\nANOTHER_KEY = "123453)"\n')
>>> MY_API_KEY
'DerP12312'
>>> ANOTHER_KEY
'123453)'

answered May 1, 2017 at 16:40

Ben Hoyt

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2 Comments

Dan O'Boyle Over a year ago

This worked perfectly. I control the contents of the imported file, so no concerns about allowing it to exec in code.

Ben Hoyt Over a year ago

Cool. If you control the contents of the file, you might also want to consider using a configuration file format like INI (via configparser).

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