How To Get The List Of Built-in Modules In Python With Examples

Python’s extensive standard library comes equipped with a wide array of built-in modules that provide ready-made functions and utilities for various tasks. While Python’s built-in modules are a treasure trove for developers, it’s crucial to know how to access and explore them effectively. In this guide, we’ll delve into the step-by-step process of obtaining the list of built-in modules in Python, along with practical examples to illustrate their usage.

1. Using the `help()` Function.

1. One of the easiest ways to retrieve the list of built-in modules in Python is by utilizing the `help()` function.
2. By passing the `modules` argument to `help()`, you can display the comprehensive list of built-in modules available in your Python environment.

   import sys
   
   # Using the help() function
   help('modules')

3. This simple snippet will provide you with an extensive list of built-in modules, empowering you to explore and leverage Python’s rich collection of pre-built tools.

2. Accessing the `sys` Module.

1. Another approach to accessing the list of built-in modules involves utilizing the `sys` module.
2. The `sys` module provides access to some variables used or maintained by the Python interpreter and allows you to retrieve a list of built-in module names.

   import sys
   
   # Getting a list of all the built-in modules
   built_in_modules = sys.builtin_module_names
   
   # Printing the list of built-in modules
   for module in built_in_modules:
       print(module)
   

3. By executing this code snippet, you’ll obtain a list of built-in module names, granting you valuable insights into the wide range of functionalities available within the Python standard library.
4. Output.

   _abc
   _ast
   _bisect
   _blake2
   _codecs
   _codecs_cn
   _codecs_hk
   _codecs_iso2022
   _codecs_jp
   _codecs_kr
   _codecs_tw
   _collections
   _contextvars
   _csv
   _datetime
   _functools
   _heapq
   _imp
   _io
   _json
   _lsprof
   _md5
   _multibytecodec
   _opcode
   _operator
   _peg_parser
   _pickle
   _random
   _sha1
   _sha256
   _sha3
   _sha512
   _signal
   _sre
   _stat
   _statistics
   _string
   _struct
   _symtable
   _thread
   _tracemalloc
   _warnings
   _weakref
   _winapi
   _xxsubinterpreters
   array
   atexit
   audioop
   binascii
   builtins
   cmath
   errno
   faulthandler
   gc
   itertools
   marshal
   math
   mmap
   msvcrt
   nt
   parser
   sys
   time
   winreg
   xxsubtype
   zlib

3. Use The pkgutil Module to List All The Python Builtin Modules.

1. The `sys.builtin_module_names` method does not include all the built-in modules, particularly those implemented in C.
2. To get a more comprehensive list, you can use the `pkgutil` module. Here’s an example of how to do it:

   import pkgutil
   
   # List all the built-in modules
   built_in_modules = [name for _, name, _ in pkgutil.iter_modules()]
   
   # Print the list of built-in modules
   print(built_in_modules)
   

3. Output.

   ['_asyncio', '_bz2', '_ctypes', '_ctypes_test', '_decimal', '_elementtree', '_hashlib', '_lzma', '_msi', '_multiprocessing', '_overlapped', '_queue', '_socket', '_sqlite3', '_ssl', '_testbuffer', '_testcapi', '_testconsole', '_testimportmultiple', '_testinternalcapi', '_testmultiphase', '_tkinter', '_uuid', '_zoneinfo', 'pyexpat', 'select', 'unicodedata', 'winsound', '__future__', 
   '_aix_support', '_bootlocale', '_bootsubprocess', '_collections_abc', '_compat_pickle', '_compression', '_markupbase', '_nsis', 
   '_osx_support', '_py_abc', '_pydecimal', '_pyio', '_sitebuiltins', '_strptime', '_system_path', '_threading_local', '_weakrefset', 'abc', 'aifc', 'antigravity', 'argparse', 'ast', 'asynchat', 'asyncio', 'asyncore', 'base64', 'bdb', 'binhex', 'bisect', 'bz2', 'cProfile', 'calendar', 'cgi', 'cgitb', 'chunk', 'cmd', 'code', 'codecs', 'codeop', 'collections', 'colorsys', 'compileall', 
   'concurrent', 'configparser', 'contextlib', 'contextvars', 'copy', 'copyreg', 'crypt', 'csv', 'ctypes', 'curses', 'dataclasses', 'datetime', 'dbm', 'decimal', 'difflib', 'dis', 'distutils', 'doctest', 'email', 'encodings', 'ensurepip', 'enum', 'filecmp', 'fileinput', 'fnmatch', 'formatter', 'fractions', 'ftplib', 'functools', 'genericpath', 'getopt', 'getpass', 'gettext', 'glob', 'graphlib', 'gzip', 'hashlib', 'heapq', 'hmac', 'html', 'http', 'idlelib', 'imaplib', 'imghdr', 'imp', 'importlib', 'inspect', 'io', 'ipaddress', 'json', 'keyword', 'lib2to3', 'linecache', 'locale', 'logging', 'lzma', 'mailbox', 'mailcap', 'mimetypes', 'modulefinder', 'msilib', 'multiprocessing', 'netrc', 'nntplib', 'ntpath', 'nturl2path', 'numbers', 'opcode', 'operator', 'optparse', 'os', 'pathlib', 'pdb', 'pickle', 'pickletools', 'pipes', 'pkgutil', 'platform', 'plistlib', 'poplib', 'posixpath', 'pprint', 
   'profile', 'pstats', 'pty', 'py_compile', 'pyclbr', 'pydoc', 'pydoc_data', 'queue', 'quopri', 'random', 're', 'reprlib', 'rlcompleter', 'runpy', 'sched', 'secrets', 'selectors', 'shelve', 'shlex', 'shutil', 'signal', 'site', 'smtpd', 'smtplib', 'sndhdr', 'socket', 'socketserver', 'sqlite3', 'sre_compile', 'sre_constants', 'sre_parse', 'ssl', 'stat', 'statistics', 'string', 'stringprep', 'struct', 'subprocess', 'sunau', 'symbol', 'symtable', 'sysconfig', 'tabnanny', 'tarfile', 'telnetlib', 'tempfile', 'test'', 'turtledemo', 'types', 'typing', 'unittest', 'urllib', 'uu', 'uuid', 'venv', 'warnings', 'wave', 'weakref', 'webbrowser', 'wsgiref', 'xdrlib', 'xml', 'xmlrpc', 'zipapp', 'zipfile', 'zipimport', 'zoneinfo', 'cwp', 'OpenAIAuth', 'aiohttp', 'aiosignal', 'anyio', 'async_timeout', 'attr', 'attrs', 'cachetools', 'charset_normalizer', 'chatgpt', 'cmd_2to3', 'colorama', 'deprecated', 'frozenlist', 'future', 'h11', 'httpcore', 'httpx', 'idna', 'libfuturize', 'libpasteurize', 'markdown_it', 'mdurl', 'multidict', 'openai', 'packaging', 'past', 'pip', 'pyarmor', 'pygments', 'pyparsing', 'redis', 'requests', 'revChatGPT', 'rfc3986', 'rich', 'sniffio', 'tls_client', 'tqdm', 'urllib3', 'whois', 'wrapt', 'yarl', 'Cython', 'IPython', 'OpenSSL', 'PIL', 'PyQt5', 'TBB', '_argon2_cffi_bindings', '_black_version', '_cffi_backend', '_distutils_hack', '_plotly_future_', '_plotly_utils', '_pyrsistent_version', '_pytest', '_yaml', 'adodbapi', 'alabaster', 'anaconda_navigator', 'anaconda_project', 'appdirs', 'argon2', 'arrow', 'astroid', 'astropy', 'asttokens', 'atomicwrites', 'automat', 'autopep8', 'babel', 'backcall', 'backports', 'bcrypt', 'binaryornot', 
   'binstar_client', 'bitarray', 'bkcharts', 'black', 'blackd', 'bleach', 'blib2to3', 'bokeh', 'boto3', 'botocore', 'bottleneck', 'brotli', 'bs4', 'certifi', 'cffi', 'chardet', 'click', 'cloudpickle', 'clyent', 'colorcet', 'comtypes', 'conda', 'conda_build', 
   'conda_content_trust', 'conda_env', 'conda_pack', 'conda_package_handling', 'conda_token', 'conda_verify', 'constantly', 'cookiecutter', 'cryptography', 'cssselect', 'curl', 'cycler', 'cython', 'cytoolz', 'daal4py', 'dask', 'datashader', 'datashape', 'dateutil', 'debugpy', 'decorator', 'defusedxml', 'diff_match_patch', 'distributed', 'docutils', 'entrypoints', 'erfa', 'et_xmlfile', 'executing', 'fastjsonschema', 'filelock', 'flake8', 'flask', 'fontTools', 'fsspec', 'gensim', 'glob2', 'google_crc32c', 'greenlet', 'grpc', 'h5py', 'hamcrest', 'heapdict', 'holoviews', 'hvplot', 'hyperlink', 'imagecodecs', 'imageio', 'imagesize', 'importlib_metadata', 'incremental', 'inflection', 'iniconfig', 'intake', 'intervaltree', 'ipykernel', 'ipykernel_launcher', 'ipython_genutils', 'ipywidgets', 'isapi', 'isort', 'isympy', 'itemadapter', 'itemloaders', 'itsdangerous', 'jdcal', 'jedi', 'jinja2', 'jinja2_time', 'jmespath', 'joblib', 'json5', 'jsonschema', 'jupyter', 'jupyter_client', 'jupyter_console', 'jupyter_core', 'jupyter_server', 'jupyterlab', 'jupyterlab_plotly', 'jupyterlab_pygments', 'jupyterlab_server', 'jupyterlab_widgets', 'jwt', 'keyring', 'kiwisolver', 'lazy_object_proxy', 'libarchive', 'lief', 'llvmlite', 'locket', 'lxml', 'markdown', 'markupsafe', 'matplotlib', 'matplotlib_inline', 'mccabe', 'menuinst', 'mistune', 'mkl', 'mkl_fft', 'mkl_random', 'mock', 'mpmath', 'msgpack', 'multipledispatch', 'munkres', 'mypy_extensions', 'nacl', 'navigator_updater', 'nbclassic', 'nbclient', 'nbconvert', 'nbformat', 'nest_asyncio', 'networkx', 'nltk', 'nose', 'notebook', 'numba', 'numbergen', 'numexpr', 'numpy', 'numpydoc', 'olefile', 'onedal', 'openpyxl', 'pandas', 'pandocfilters', 'panel', 'param', 'paramiko', 'parsel', 'parso', 'partd', 'pathspec', 'patsy', 'pep8', 'pexpect', 'pickleshare', 'pkg_resources', 'pkginfo', 'plotly', 'pluggy', 'poyo', 'prometheus_client', 'prompt_toolkit', 'protego', 'psutil', 'ptyprocess', 'pure_eval', 'pvectorc', 'py', 'pyasn1', 'pyasn1_modules', 'pycodestyle', 'pycosat', 'pycparser', 'pyct', 'pycurl', 'pydispatch', 'pydocstyle', 'pyflakes', 'pylab', 'pylint', 'pyls_spyder', 'pylsp', 'pylsp_black', 'pylsp_jsonrpc', 'pyodbc', 'pyreadline', 'pyrsistent', 'pytest', 'pythoncom', 'pytz', 'pyviz_comms', 'pywt', 'pyximport', 'qdarkstyle', 'qstylizer', 'qtawesome', 'qtconsole', 'qtpy', 'queuelib', 'readline', 'regex', 'repo_cli', 'requests_file', 'rope', 'rsa', 'rtree', 'ruamel_yaml', 'run', 's3transfer', 'scipy', 'scrapy', 'seaborn', 'send2trash', 'service_identity', 'setuptools', 'sip', 'sipconfig', 'sipdistutils', 'six', 'skimage', 'sklearn', 'sklearnex', 'slugify', 'smart_open', 'snappy', 'snowballstemmer', 'socks', 'sockshandler', 'sortedcollections', 'sortedcontainers', 'soupsieve', 'sphinx', 'spyder', 'spyder_kernels', 'sqlalchemy', 'stack_data', 'statsmodels', 'sympy', 'tables', 'tabulate', 'tbb', 'tblib', 'tenacity', 'terminado', 'test_pycosat', 'testpath', 'text_unidecode', 'textdistance', 'threadpoolctl', 'three_merge', 'tifffile', 'tinycss', 'tldextract', 'tlz', 'toml', 'tomli', 'toolz', 'tornado', 'traitlets', 'twisted', 'typed_ast', 'typing_extensions', 'ujson', 'unidecode', 'w3lib', 'watchdog', 'wcwidth', 'webencodings', 'websocket', 'werkzeug', 'wheel', 'widgetsnbextension', 'win32com', 'win32ctypes', 'win_inet_pton', 'win_unicode_console', 'wincertstore', 'winpty', 'xarray', 'xlrd', 'xlsxwriter', 'xlwings', 'yaml', 'yapf', 'yapftests', 'zict', 'zipp', 'zmq', 'zope', 'vboxapi', '_win32sysloader', '_winxptheme', 'mmapfile', 'odbc', 'perfmon', 'servicemanager', 'timer', 'win32api', 'win32clipboard', 'win32console', 'win32cred', 'win32crypt', 'win32event', 'win32evtlog', 'win32file', 'win32gui', 'win32help', 'win32inet', 'win32job', 'win32lz', 'win32net', 'win32pdh', 'win32pipe', 'win32print', 'win32process', 'win32profile', 'win32ras', 'win32security', 'win32service', 'win32trace', 'win32transaction', 'win32ts', 'win32wnet', 'winxpgui', 'afxres', 'commctrl', 'dbi', 'mmsystem', 'netbios', 'ntsecuritycon', 'pywin32_bootstrap', 'pywin32_testutil', 'pywintypes', 'rasutil', 'regcheck', 'regutil', 'sspi', 'sspicon', 'win2kras', 'win32con', 'win32cryptcon', 'win32evtlogutil', 'win32gui_struct', 'win32inetcon', 'win32netcon', 'win32pdhquery', 'win32pdhutil', 'win32rcparser', 'win32serviceutil', 'win32timezone', 'win32traceutil', 'win32verstamp', 'winerror', 
   'winioctlcon', 'winnt', 'winperf', 'winxptheme', 'dde', 'pywin', 'win32ui', 'win32uiole']

4. This method will give you a more exhaustive list, which includes the `os` module and other built-in modules that might not be listed using `sys.builtin_module_names`.

4. Conclusion.

1. In conclusion, Python’s built-in modules offer a plethora of resources that can significantly streamline the development process.
2. By mastering the techniques for accessing and exploring built-in modules, you can unlock the full potential of Python’s standard library, thereby enhancing the efficiency and robustness of your code.
3. By incorporating the methods outlined in this guide, you can seamlessly access the list of built-in modules and harness their power to create sophisticated and feature-rich Python applications.