How To Find Where Python Modules Stored

In this article, i will tell you 3 methods to find where a python module stores as below.

Find python module in sys.path. The python sys module’s path attribute save all python module stored path. Then you can find your python module in the output path directory.

>>> import sys
>>>
>>> sys.path
['', 'C:\\Users\\zhaosong\\anaconda3\\envs\\python_example\\python38.zip', 'C:\\Users\\zhaosong\\anaconda3\\envs\\python_example\\DLLs', 'C:\\Users\\zhaosong\\anaconda3\\envs\\python_example\\lib', 'C:\\Users\\zhaosong\\anaconda3\\envs\\python_example', 'C:\\Users\\zhaosong\\anaconda3\\envs\\python_example\\lib\\site-packages']

Use __import__( '<module_name>' ).__file__to get the python module stored file location.

>>> __import__('os').__file__
'C:\\Users\\zhaosong\\anaconda3\\envs\\python_example\\lib\\os.py'

import sys

# define a function to check whether module is a builtin module or not.
def find_module(module):
    # if the module is a builtin module.
    if module in sys.builtin_module_names:
        print(module, " is builtin module ")
    else:
        # else print out the module source file path.
        print(module, "module file => ", __import__(module).__file__)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    find_module('os')  
    find_module('time')
    find_module('string')
    
    # below module do not exist, then an error will be thrown.
    find_module('def')

Below is above code execue resule.

os module file =>  C:\Users\zhaosong\anaconda3\lib\os.py
time  is builtin module 

string module file =>  C:\Users\zhaosong\anaconda3\lib\string.py

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\WorkSpace\Work\dev2qa.com-example-code\PythonExampleProject\com\dev2qa\example\standard\sys\find_modules.py", line 22, in 
    find_module('def')
  File "C:\WorkSpace\Work\dev2qa.com-example-code\PythonExampleProject\com\dev2qa\example\standard\sys\find_modules.py", line 15, in find_module
    print(module, "module file => ", __import__(module).__file__)

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'def'

Use help( '<module_name>' ) method.

>>> help('string')
Help on module string:

NAME
    string - A collection of string constants.

MODULE REFERENCE
    https://docs.python.org/3.8/library/string

    The following documentation is automatically generated from the Python
    source files.  It may be incomplete, incorrect or include features that
    are considered implementation detail and may vary between Python
    implementations.  When in doubt, consult the module reference at the
    location listed above.

DESCRIPTION
    Public module variables:

    whitespace -- a string containing all ASCII whitespace
    ascii_lowercase -- a string containing all ASCII lowercase letters
    ascii_uppercase -- a string containing all ASCII uppercase letters
    ascii_letters -- a string containing all ASCII letters
    digits -- a string containing all ASCII decimal digits
    hexdigits -- a string containing all ASCII hexadecimal digits
    octdigits -- a string containing all ASCII octal digits
    punctuation -- a string containing all ASCII punctuation characters
    printable -- a string containing all ASCII characters considered printable

CLASSES
    builtins.object
    ........
FILE
    c:\users\zhaosong\anaconda3\envs\python_example\lib\string.py

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