Difference between "import X" and "from X import *"?

import X: this imports everything as X.var1,X.var2,etc

from X import * : this imports everthing as var1,var2 etc ,i.e it floods the local namespace

see the difference after two calls:

>>> import math
>>> len(globals())  
5                          #no of variables in namespace
>>> globals()
{'__builtins__': <module '__builtin__' (built-in)>, '__name__': '__main__', '__doc__': None, 'math': <module 'math' from '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload/math.so'>, '__package__': None}
>>> 
>>>
>>> from math import *
>>> len(globals())
47                     #no of variables in namespace
>>> globals()
{'pow': <built-in function pow>, 'fsum': <built-in function fsum>, 'cosh': <built-in function cosh>, 'ldexp': <built-in function ldexp>, 'hypot': <built-in function hypot>, 'acosh': <built-in function acosh>, 'tan': <built-in function tan>, 'asin': <built-in function asin>, 'isnan': <built-in function isnan>, 'log': <built-in function log>, 'fabs': <built-in function fabs>, 'floor': <built-in function floor>, 'atanh': <built-in function atanh>, 'sqrt': <built-in function sqrt>, '__package__': None, 'frexp': <built-in function frexp>, 'factorial': <built-in function factorial>, 'degrees': <built-in function degrees>, 'pi': 3.141592653589793, 'log10': <built-in function log10>, '__doc__': None, 'math': <module 'math' from '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload/math.so'>, 'asinh': <built-in function asinh>, 'fmod': <built-in function fmod>, 'atan': <built-in function atan>, '__builtins__': <module '__builtin__' (built-in)>, 'copysign': <built-in function copysign>, 'cos': <built-in function cos>, 'ceil': <built-in function ceil>, 'atan2': <built-in function atan2>, 'isinf': <built-in function isinf>, 'sinh': <built-in function sinh>, '__name__': '__main__', 'trunc': <built-in function trunc>, 'expm1': <built-in function expm1>, 'e': 2.718281828459045, 'tanh': <built-in function tanh>, 'radians': <built-in function radians>, 'sin': <built-in function sin>, 'lgamma': <built-in function lgamma>, 'erf': <built-in function erf>, 'erfc': <built-in function erfc>, 'modf': <built-in function modf>, 'exp': <built-in function exp>, 'acos': <built-in function acos>, 'log1p': <built-in function log1p>, 'gamma': <built-in function gamma>}

After import x, you can refer to things in x like x.something. After from x import *, you can refer to things in x directly just as something. Because the second form imports the names directly into the local namespace, it creates the potential for conflicts if you import things from many modules. Therefore, the from x import * is discouraged.

You can also do from x import something, which imports just the something into the local namespace, not everything in x. This is better because if you list the names you import, you know exactly what you are importing and it's easier to avoid name conflicts.

import X

Creates a label in the local namespace that references the module object.

from X import *

Creates a label for every member attribute of the X module, directly in the local namespace.

Both operations add X to sys.modules, true, but the effect on the local namespace is the difference.