Enforcing Python imports’ order with isort, Makefiles, and Vim¶
I finally integrated isort into my toolbox.
I think that the job of changing code files belongs to the editor (or an IDE),
so I made Vim run isort automatically,
while the import order enforcement in a project is done via Makefile
(which can be run the same way by developers and the CI/CD pipeline).
This post may be a bit chaotic, but it should give a glimpse of how I like to set up automation around quality assurance (like tests, linting, static checks, etc.) in my projects. I’d like to produce more comprehensive write-ups at some point in the future.
isort installation¶
First, the isort Python package needs to be available for your editor and the make commands wherever
you are working, so:
VIM (editor) setup¶
If you’re not using Vim you’ll probably still find an isort plugin for your editor.
Or maybe your IDE has import ordering built-in, like
Pycharm.
You’ll need a Vim plugin - ALE - to run isort.
I recommend vim-plug as the plugin manager.
You can see how I set it up at the top of my
.vimrc.
You can add the plugin by adding Plug 'dense-analysis/ale' in the right place in your .vimrc,
and then issuing the :PlugUpdate command to Vim.
Then, add some more config into .vimrc:
" make ALE use isort
let g:ale_fixers = { 'python': ['isort'] }
" this will make :ALEFix, and thus import fix to run on file save
let g:ale_fix_on_save = 1
Configuring isort¶
Know that you can configure some aspects
of how isort works.
For example, I like to sort all my imports alphabetically on the referenced packages,
without separating import XXX and from XXX import YYY statements.
So I put this in my pyproject.toml:
[tool.isort]
force_sort_within_sections = true
Use in project’s Makefile¶
I like to have a validate Makefile target that runs all tests and static code checks.
That target should be run by developers and the CI/CD pipeline.
isort can work as one of the static checks, if used with -c flag.
So we can have a Makefile looking like this:
validate: static_checks test
test:
pytest -v tests/
static_checks:
isort -c the_code
pylint the_code
Bonus: automatic imports fixer for Vim¶
One of the features I’m missing from Pycharm is automatic adding of missing imports.
There’s a plugin called vim-nayvy that can do that,
but I wasn’t able to get it to work with anything other than standard library imports.
That is, it wouldn’t fix imports of third-party packages from site-packages or project/local packages.
Maybe that has something to do with me not having a Python Language Server running with NeoVim… I’ll see about that some other time.
