Current behavior:
There are some places throughout the uxarray codebase where import is being used inside functions. The benefit is that the imports are "lazy"; they aren't evaluated until that function actually gets called. This is useful for optional dependencies (see also #1548) but also for any "heavy" dependencies which take a long time or a lot of memory to import. However, the downside is that the code is a bit harder to read and a bit harder to extend, as the import statements get repeated across many functions in the same file.
Proposed change:
Imports which are not "heavy" or which are already being imported non-lazily somewhere in uxarray should be changed to consistently be imported non-lazily everywhere in uxarray.
For example, many functions inside uxarray.core.api are currently doing:
def core_api_function(...):
import xarray as xr
...However in various places, such as uxarray.core.dataarray, xarray is already being imported at the top of file.
Unless there is a compelling reason to avoid importing xarray at the top of uxarray.core.api, I would propose to move these imports to the top of the file. I don't think this will reduce efficiency in any meaningful use-case, and it should help make the code easier to extend. Although, if there is a compelling reason to keep the import inside the functions instead, I would instead propose that a comment be added to each such import at least once per file to explain the reasoning.
Note: it probably makes sense to delay this work until after #1548, which also relocates some import statements.
Current behavior:
There are some places throughout the uxarray codebase where import is being used inside functions. The benefit is that the imports are "lazy"; they aren't evaluated until that function actually gets called. This is useful for optional dependencies (see also #1548) but also for any "heavy" dependencies which take a long time or a lot of memory to import. However, the downside is that the code is a bit harder to read and a bit harder to extend, as the import statements get repeated across many functions in the same file.
Proposed change:
Imports which are not "heavy" or which are already being imported non-lazily somewhere in uxarray should be changed to consistently be imported non-lazily everywhere in uxarray.
For example, many functions inside uxarray.core.api are currently doing:
However in various places, such as
uxarray.core.dataarray, xarray is already being imported at the top of file.Unless there is a compelling reason to avoid importing xarray at the top of
uxarray.core.api, I would propose to move these imports to the top of the file. I don't think this will reduce efficiency in any meaningful use-case, and it should help make the code easier to extend. Although, if there is a compelling reason to keep the import inside the functions instead, I would instead propose that a comment be added to each such import at least once per file to explain the reasoning.Note: it probably makes sense to delay this work until after #1548, which also relocates some import statements.