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Python Using Databases in Python Meet Peewee Modeling

Posted by Graham Mackenzie
Graham Mackenzie
2,747 Points

If we import everything from peewee, why don't we just import peewee

instead of from peewee import *?

Looking forward to hearing the answer.

Thanks! Graham

1 Answer

Chris Freeman
MOD
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,457 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,457 Points

You absolution could simply use import peewee. But then everywhere you use one of the fields or other peewee defined objects, you would have to prefix it with "peewee." and your code would look like:

class User(UserMixin, peewee.Model):
    """User Model
    """
    email = peewee.CharField(unique=True)
    password = peewee.CharField(max_length=100)
    joined_at = peewee.DateTimeField(default=datetime.datetime.now)
    is_admin = peewee.BooleanField(default=False)

Alternatively, you could import each peewee object individually, as needed:

# from peewee import *
from peewee import SqliteDatabase, Model
from peewee import CharField, DateTimeField, BooleanField, TextField, ForeignKeyField
from peewee import IntegrityError
Graham Mackenzie
Graham Mackenzie
2,747 Points

Thanks again, Chris!

But your answer makes me think of another question: In that case, why don't we import datetime thusly from datetime import * so that we can drop appending datetime to the front of all related functions? : )

Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,457 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,457 Points

First, understand that the from peewee import * is extremely bad form, but due to legacy implementation it is accepted as "tolerable".

The biggest reason to not use import * is namespace. By using the star method, everything from the other module is placed into the main namespace. It is very possible that something in your code would collide with something from another module or could collide between two modules if both were imported using the star.

The other risk is future changes. Say your code works with the import *, but then the other module updates and add new objects that then collides with your code. Your code breaks without changes from you.

For datetime, it is common to see from datetime import datetime so one prefixed "datetime." can be dropped.

Graham Mackenzie
Graham Mackenzie
2,747 Points

Thanks again!

Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,457 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,457 Points

As a closing comment, the direct imports from peewee I show in my answer are the actual imports I used to solve the Build a Social Network with Flask Tacocat challenge. I wanted to see what imports were required if the import star wasn't used.