sklearn doesn't have attribute 'datasets'
sklearn
is a package. This answer said it very succinctly:
when you import a package, only variables/functions/classes in the
__init__.py
file of that package are directly visible, not sub-packages or modules.
datasets
is a sub-package of sklearn
. This is why this happens:
In [1]: import sklearnIn [2]: sklearn.datasets---------------------------------------------------------------------------AttributeError Traceback (most recent call last)<ipython-input-2-325a2bfc35d0> in <module>()----> 1 sklearn.datasetsAttributeError: module 'sklearn' has no attribute 'datasets'
However, the reason why this works:
In [3]: from sklearn import datasetsIn [4]: sklearn.datasetsOut[4]: <module 'sklearn.datasets' from '/home/ethan/.virtualenvs/test3/lib/python3.5/site-packages/sklearn/datasets/__init__.py'>
is that when you load the sub-package datasets
by doing from sklearn import datasets
it is automatically added to the namespace of the package sklearn
. This is one of the lesser-known "traps" of the Python import system.
Also, note that if you look at the __init__.py
for sklearn
you will see 'datasets'
as a member of __all__
, but this only allows you to do:
In [1]: from sklearn import *In [2]: datasetsOut[2]: <module 'sklearn.datasets' from '/home/ethan/.virtualenvs/test3/lib/python3.5/site-packages/sklearn/datasets/__init__.py'>
One last point to note is that if you inspect either sklearn
or datasets
you will see that, although they are packages, their type is module
. This is because all packages are considered modules - however, not all modules are packages.