Modules¶

Modules in Julia are separate global variable workspaces. They are delimited syntactically, inside moduleName...end. Modules allow you to create top-level definitions without worrying about name conflicts when your code is used together with somebody else’s. Within a module, you can control which names from other modules are visible (via importing), and specify which of your names are intended to be public (via exporting).

The following example demonstrates the major features of modules. It is not meant to be run, but is shown for illustrative purposes:

moduleMyModuleusingLibusingBigLib:thing1,thing2importBase.showimportallOtherLibexportMyType,footype MyTypexendbar(x)=2xfoo(a::MyType)=bar(a.x)+1show(io,a::MyType)=print(io,"MyType $(a.x)")end

Note that the style is not to indent the body of the module, since that would typically lead to whole files being indented.

This module defines a type MyType, and two functions. Function foo and type MyType are exported, and so will be available for importing into other modules. Function bar is private to MyModule.

The statement usingLib means that a module called Lib will be available for resolving names as needed. When a global variable is encountered that has no definition in the current module, the system will search for it among variables exported by Lib and import it if it is found there. This means that all uses of that global within the current module will resolve to the definition of that variable in Lib.

The statement usingBigLib:thing1,thing2 is a syntactic shortcut for usingBigLib.thing1,BigLib.thing2.

The import keyword supports all the same syntax as using, but only operates on a single name at a time. It does not add modules to be searched the way using does. import also differs from using in that functions must be imported using import to be extended with new methods.

In MyModule above we wanted to add a method to the standard show function, so we had to write importBase.show. Functions whose names are only visible via using cannot be extended.

The keyword importall explicitly imports all names exported by the specified module, as if import were individually used on all of them.

Once a variable is made visible via using or import, a module may not create its own variable with the same name. Imported variables are read-only; assigning to a global variable always affects a variable owned by the current module, or else raises an error.

Summary of module usage¶

To load a module, two main keywords can be used: using and import. To understand their differences, consider the following example:

moduleMyModuleexportx,yx()="x"y()="y"p()="p"end

In this module we export the x and y functions (with the keyword export), and also have the non-exported function p. There are several different ways to load the Module and its inner functions into the current workspace:

Import Command	What is brought into scope	Available for method extension
`usingMyModule`	All `export` ed names (`x` and `y`), `MyModule.x`, `MyModule.y` and `MyModule.p`	`MyModule.x`, `MyModule.y` and `MyModule.p`
`usingMyModule.x,MyModule.p`	`x` and `p`
`usingMyModule:x,p`	`x` and `p`
`importMyModule`	`MyModule.x`, `MyModule.y` and `MyModule.p`	`MyModule.x`, `MyModule.y` and `MyModule.p`
`importMyModule.x,MyModule.p`	`x` and `p`	`x` and `p`
`importMyModule:x,p`	`x` and `p`	`x` and `p`
`importallMyModule`	All `export` ed names (`x` and `y`)	`x` and `y`

Modules and files¶

Files and file names are mostly unrelated to modules; modules are associated only with module expressions. One can have multiple files per module, and multiple modules per file:

moduleFooinclude("file1.jl")include("file2.jl")end

Including the same code in different modules provides mixin-like behavior. One could use this to run the same code with different base definitions, for example testing code by running it with “safe” versions of some operators:

moduleNormalinclude("mycode.jl")endmoduleTestinginclude("safe_operators.jl")include("mycode.jl")end

Standard modules¶

There are three important standard modules: Main, Core, and Base.

Main is the top-level module, and Julia starts with Main set as the current module. Variables defined at the prompt go in Main, and whos() lists variables in Main.

Core contains all identifiers considered “built in” to the language, i.e. part of the core language and not libraries. Every module implicitly specifies usingCore, since you can’t do anything without those definitions.

Base is the standard library (the contents of base/). All modules implicitly contain usingBase, since this is needed in the vast majority of cases.

Default top-level definitions and bare modules¶

In addition to usingBase, all operators are explicitly imported, since one typically wants to extend operators rather than creating entirely new definitions of them. A module also automatically contains a definition of the eval function, which evaluates expressions within the context of that module.

If these definitions are not wanted, modules can be defined using the keyword baremodule instead. In terms of baremodule, a standard module looks like this:

baremoduleModusingBaseimportallBase.Operatorseval(x)=Core.eval(Mod,x)eval(m,x)=Core.eval(m,x)...end

Relative and absolute module paths¶

Given the statement usingFoo, the system looks for Foo within Main. If the module does not exist, the system attempts to require("Foo"), which typically results in loading code from an installed package.

However, some modules contain submodules, which means you sometimes need to access a module that is not directly available in Main. There are two ways to do this. The first is to use an absolute path, for example usingBase.Sort. The second is to use a relative path, which makes it easier to import submodules of the current module or any of its enclosing modules:

moduleParentmoduleUtils...endusing.Utils...end

Here module Parent contains a submodule Utils, and code in Parent wants the contents of Utils to be visible. This is done by starting the using path with a period. Adding more leading periods moves up additional levels in the module hierarchy. For example using..Utils would look for Utils in Parent‘s enclosing module rather than in Parent itself.

Note that relative-import qualifiers are only valid in using and import statements.

Module file paths¶

The global variable LOAD_PATH contains the directories Julia searches for modules when calling require. It can be extended using push!:

push!(LOAD_PATH,"/Path/To/My/Module/")

Putting this statement in the file ~/.juliarc.jl will extend LOAD_PATH on every Julia startup. Alternatively, the module load path can be extended by defining the environment variable JULIA_LOAD_PATH.

Miscellaneous details¶

If a name is qualified (e.g. Base.sin), then it can be accessed even if it is not exported. This is often useful when debugging.

Macro names are written with @ in import and export statements, e.g. importMod.@mac. Macros in other modules can be invoked as Mod.@mac or @Mod.mac.

The syntax M.x=y does not work to assign a global in another module; global assignment is always module-local.

A variable can be “reserved” for the current module without assigning to it by declaring it as globalx at the top level. This can be used to prevent name conflicts for globals initialized after load time.