Regarding auto-import feature and datetime

[dpetka2001]

I installed python3 -m pip install python-lsp-server and python3 -m pip install "python-lsp-server[rope]" in my virtual environment to test out the python-lsp-server. I use Neovim and have configured lspconfig as follows

        pylsp = {
          settings = {
            pylsp = {
              plugins = {
                rope_autoimport = {
                  enabled = true,
                },
              },
            },
          },
        },

When I open a python file in my virtual environment and type floor then I get completion for auto-importing math and when typing sleep I get completion for auto-importing sleep. However, when I type datetime I only get completion for auto-importing from xmlrpc.client import DateTime.

Am I maybe missing some configuration option to enable additional module preloading with pylsp and rope? From what I can see here, I believe that datetime module should be preloaded? Or maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Please excuse my ignorance as I'm still new to programming and grabbed Python as my first language to start. If I do import datetime, then I get completion about the modules that are available.

Appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.

[ccordoba12]

Hey @dpetka2001, thanks for reporting. I'm not sure what's happening because I don't use this functionality.

@tkrabel, any ideas about this one?

[dpetka2001]

Any advice on this? Is this something expected? Should i maybe configure something on my end?

[smheidrich]

Explanation

This is a limitation of Rope: By default, it uses static analysis of Python source code to find out which names are available for import, but this can't work for C extension modules which don't have any Python source code.

Python's datetime module imports its actual contents from a C extension module named _datetime, so Rope can't find out about them using this default approach.

How to fix

Rope can be configured to introspect specific extension modules by actually executing them using the extension_modules option.

So to fix this, you can either add this to your project's .ropeproject/config.py file:

def set_prefs(prefs):
  prefs["extension_modules"] = ["_datetime"]

or this to your project's pyproject.toml or global pytool.toml:

[tool.rope]
extension_modules = ['_datetime']

[smheidrich]

P.S. Can you please change the title to something more specific so others can find this discussion more easily? E.g.

Regarding auto-import feature and datetime

I had the same issue and I'm sure there will be more after me.

[dpetka2001]

Wow!! Really thank you @smheidrich for the thorough explanation about what happens and how to solve it. Appreciate you taking the time and effort to take a look into this 😄