how to import a group of functions with a common prefix

Question

Want to import functions starting with foo_ only, but

# testcases.py
def foo_1():
    do_1()

def foo_2():
    do_2()

def bar_1():
    do_3()

def bar_2():
    do_4()

# main.py
#!/usr/bin/python3

from testcases import foo_*

foo_1()

# test run
qxu@mymac:~/test$ ./main.py 
  File "/Users/qxu/test/./main.py", line 3
    from testcases import foo_*
                          ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

More testcases will be added later, and I don't want to change main.py each time a new foo_ function is added into testcases.py.

Prango · Accepted Answer · 2025-07-31 09:01:24Z

1

That is not possible in python. But you can do the following.

You can put your testcases in different files. Even within a testcases folder. Then put your foo and bar testcases in foo.py and bar.py files inside that folder respectively. Also, you need __init__.py file in your testcases folder. In your main.py you can then import it like this:

from testcases import foo  # ./testcases/foo.py

foo.foo_1()

Or if you want to have only one file then you can import all with * and then check the method names. You can do that with the inspect module.

import testcases
from inspect import getmembers, isfunction

for name, func in getmembers(testcases, isfunction):
    if name.startswith("foo_"):
        func()

answered Jul 31 at 9:01

Prango

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cards · Accepted Answer · 2025-08-03 15:57:19Z

0

You could define a (immutable) global variable which stores the reference of the functions:

# testcases.py

# ...

foos = foo_1, foo_2 # after the last foo_* function


# main.py
from testcases import foos

foo_1 = foos[0]

foos[1]() # call of foo_2

Alternatively use the dir built-in function to "look" at the content of the target "import":

import testcases


foos_ = {
    attr_name: getattr(testcases, attr_name.removeprefix('foo_'))
    for attr_name in dir(testcases)
    if attr_name.startswith('foo_')
    }

# examples of use-cases
foo_2 = foos_['2']

foos_['1']()

answered Aug 3 at 15:57

cards

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