["python","python-import"]
Importing module from string variable using "__import__" gives different results than a normal import statement

I'm working on a documentation (personal) for nested matplotlib (MPL) library, which differs from MPL own provided, by interested submodule packages. I'm writing Python script which I hope will automate document generation from future MPL releases. I selected interested submodules/packages and want to list their main classes from which I'll generate list and process it with pydoc. The problem is that I can't find a way to instruct Python to load a submodule from a string. Here is an example of what I tried: import matplotlib.text as text x = dir(text) i = __import__('matplotlib.text') y = dir(i) j = __import__('matplotlib') z = dir(j) And here is a 3-way comparison of above lists through pprint: I don't understand what's loaded in y object - it's base matplotlib plus something else, but it lacks information that I wanted and that is main classes from matplotlib.text package. It's the top blue coloured part on screenshot (x list).
The __import__ function can be a bit hard to understand. If you change i = __import__('matplotlib.text') to i = __import__('matplotlib.text', fromlist=['']) then i will refer to matplotlib.text. In Python 3.1 or later, you can use importlib: import importlib i = importlib.import_module("matplotlib.text") Some notes If you're trying to import something from a sub-folder e.g. ./feature/email.py, the code will look like importlib.import_module("feature.email") Before Python 3.3 you could not import anything if there was no __init__.py in the folder with file you were trying to import (see caveats before deciding if you want to keep the file for backward compatibility e.g. with pytest).