python 3 import urllib.request module

Question

I am learning to grab pictures from URL and found a Q&A here. Since it's Python 3, I changed import urllib to import urllib.request and

urllib.urlretrieve("http://www.digimouth.com/news/media/2011/09/google-logo.jpg", "local-filename.jpg")

to

urllib.request.urlretrieve("http://www.digimouth.com/news/media/2011/09/google-logo.jpg", "local-filename.jpg").

It doesn't work! It says AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'urlretrieve'

I then changed urllib.urlretrieve to def request.urlretrieve and got SyntaxError: invalid syntax

I also tried def urlretrieve and it's not working either.

Could anyone tell me how to get it right? Thanks!

What if the URL contains more than one pic?

In Python 3, `urllib.request.urlretrieve` should work. Can you post some of your code? — hlt, Aug 11 '14 at 18:58
`import urllib.request` and then `urllib.request.urlretrieve` works perfectly fine on my 3.4.1 — hlt, Aug 11 '14 at 19:04
@hlt, I missed the second part of the scrambled text, I thought the OP only had an `import urllib` but I imagine the `urllib.request.urlretrieve` was not combined with the correct `import statement` — Padraic Cunningham, Aug 11 '14 at 19:08
@hlt I tried it again and it's now working! Thanks! It's so strange that it did not work this morning... — rain, Aug 11 '14 at 19:09
@rain, you did not write it correctly this morning, python does not have off days ;) — Padraic Cunningham, Aug 11 '14 at 19:11

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 11 '14 at 19:01

You need to use:

from urllib import request
request.urlretrieve("http://www.digimouth.com/news/media/2011/09/google-logo.jpg", "local-filename.jpg")

You can use also use:

 import urllib.request
 urllib.request.urlretrieve("http://www.digimouth.com/news/media/2011/09/google-logo.jpg", "local-filename.jpg")

nsane · Answer 2 · 2015-06-24T11:34:55.767

Since you have imported urllib.request module, doesn't it seem obvious that you should call its method urlretrieve(args) as urllib.request.urlretrieve(args).

When you type import <module>, you call its method using <module>.method(args) (As specified in above code).
Alternatively, you can import the module using from <module> import * and then call its method using method(args). Eg -

from urllib.request import *

urlretrieve(args).
Another way is to only import the method you need to use in your program using from <module> import method and then call the method using method(args). Eg -

from urllib.request import urlretrieve and then call the method using

urlretrieve(args).

The urllib.request module for Python 3 is well documented here.

python 3 import urllib.request module

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