Tidier way of trying to import a module from multiple locations?

def import_any(*mod_list):
    res = None
    for mod in mod_list:
        try:
            res = __import__(mod)
            return res
        except ImportError:
            pass
    raise ImportError("Requires one of " + ', '.join(mod_list))

json = import_any('simplejson', 'json', 'django.utils.simplejson')

I appreciate the pretty functions for doing this, but the pattern you illustrate in the original question is the most commonly used pattern for this requirement. You can see it used in many open source projects.

I suggest you stick with it. Remember "ugly" is not always "bad".

I found the following function at http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2007-May/441896.html. It seems to work quite well, and I'm pretty sure the way its importing won't stomp on any existing imports you might already have.

def module_exists(module_name):
    try:
        mod = __import__(module_name)
    except ImportError:
        return False
    else:
        return True

if module_exists('simplejson'):
    import simplejson as json
elif module_exists('json'):
    import json
elif module_exists('django.utils'):
    from django.utils import simplejson as json
else:
    raise ImportError('Requires either simplejson, Python 2.6 or django.utils')

I know this seems like more code, but the function is reusable elsewhere if you're doing a lot of this.