##
3.17.1 Examples

The following function emulates what was the standard import statement up to Python 1.4 (i.e., no hierarchical module names). (This implementation wouldn't work in that version, since `find_module()` has been extended and `load_module()` has been added in 1.4.)

      import imp import sys

      def __import__(name, globals=None, locals=None, fromlist=None):
          # Fast path: see if the module has already been imported.
          try:
              return sys.modules[name]
          except KeyError:
              pass

          # If any of the following calls raises an exception,
          # there's a problem we can't handle -- let the caller handle it.

          fp, pathname, description = imp.find_module(name)

          try:
              return imp.load_module(name, fp, pathname, description)
          finally:
              # Since we may exit via an exception, close fp explicitly.
              if fp:
                  fp.close()

A more complete example that implements hierarchical module names and includes a `reload()` function can be found in the standard module `knee` (which is intended as an example only -- don't rely on any part of it being a standard interface).