How to import a list of functions from different files and the execute them in Python?

Question

There is a main function, which calls functions from several files. There might be a possibility that the files have been deleted, hence I want to wrap the call of functions with try except block, and also record the time it took to execute the function.

I Have implemented this in a sub optimal way, the following code works, is there a better method to do this?

files

#main.py
#import time
def main():
    
    timer_data = []
    functions_to_be_called = []
    a=time.time()
    
    functions_to_be_called.append(("from side_branch_1 import side_branch_1","side_branch_1()"))
    functions_to_be_called.append(("from side_branch_2 import side_branch", "side_branch()"))
    
    call_function_safely(functions_to_be_called, timer_data)

    b=time.time()
    timer_data.append({'Func Name' : 'Overall','Time' : round(b - a,2)})
    
    print(timer_data)
    

def call_function_safely(func_strings, timer_data):
    
    for import_string, func_string in func_strings:
        
        sub_a = time.time()
        try:
            exec(import_string)
            exec(func_string)
        except BaseException as error:
            print(error)

        sub_b = time.time()
        timer_data.append({'Func Name' : 'side_branch_1','Time' : round(sub_b - sub_a,2)})

# side_branch_2.py
def side_branch():
    
    print('side branch 2 called')

# side_branch_1.py
def side_branch_1():
    
    print('Side Branch 1 Called')
    
    return 'Side Branch 1'

You should ask at [Code Review](https://codereview.stackexchange.com/). — Mechanic Pig, Sep 09 '22 at 08:34

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 09 '22 at 08:34

There isn't anything "safe" about this.

Anyway, the better way to import a module by a string reference is importlib.import_module.

Then getattr for the name of the function to call, and then call it.

def call_by_name(module_name, func_name, *args, **kwargs):
    try:
        mod = importlib.import_module(module_name)
    except ImportError:
        return None
    try:
        func = getattr(mod, func_name)
    except AttributeError:
        return None
    return func(*args, **kwargs)

How to import a list of functions from different files and the execute them in Python?

1 Answers1