Question

why is it that I can't put "from string import *" (without quotations) inside my function?

Answer 1

Importing a library inside of a function would lead to the library being deallocated from memory as soon as the function is over (in that it would only exist in the function's namespace, once that namespace is removed, so would the imported function). So if you were going to try to reference the function is a latter function, it would not exist anymore.

To stop this from being a problem python only allows you to import functions at a world level, so that they are applicable at all levels of your program.