Question

can anybody tell me why when I import the code from the module in Lecture 4 it tells me that 'findRoot' is not defined even though the code is not commented out?

When I import 'lect4.py' the shell just moves to the next line without printing anything and if I write findRoot(x,y,z) for some numbers x,y,z it says that findRoot is not defined. No idea what's wrong...

Answer 1

Usually when I get that type of error, it's because I wrote findRoot instead of findroot.

Answer 2

try lect4.findRoot(x,y,z)

when you import a module, its functions, methods, object are in its namespace so you have to specify the module that it is in.

http://docs.python.org/tutorial/classes.html#a-word-about-names-and-objects
http://docs.python.org/reference/simple_stmts.html#import

Answer 3

http://effbot.org/zone/import-confusion.htm
http://docs.python.org/tutorial/modules.html#modules

Answer 4

Thank you bwCa. That makes all the difference. Any idea why he doesn't need to do that in the lecture example?

Answer 5

if you use
from module import function/object - or
from module import *

you import those things directly into the importing modules namespace and you can call them like they are actually in the module you are editing - is that what he did in the lecture?
http://docs.python.org/reference/simple_stmts.html#import

i have read a lot saying that this is NOT the preferred method
http://python.net/~goodger/projects/pycon/2007/idiomatic/handout.html#importing

Answer 6

privyet, we do not have the book and the course hasn't started yet

Answer 7

@minimallinux this discussion group is for other ocw classes not just the edx class