Module vs package - what's the difference

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Accepted Answer

A module is simply any .py file. When you write 'import math', Python finds math.py (or a C extension) and loads it as a module object. A package is a directory that Python treats as a namespace containing modules and sub-packages. The classic signal is __init__.py in the directory, though Python 3.3+ introduced namespace packages that work without it. After 'import requests', requests is a package - requests/__init__.py runs, and you get access to requests.get, requests.Session, and so on, which are defined across multiple submodules. The distinction matters when debugging import errors: 'no module named X' could mean a missing file or a missing directory.