我很惊讶没有看到重复负载检查的实际成本数字，尽管有很多很好的解释。

如果你在顶部导入，不管发生什么，你都要加载命中。这非常小，但通常是毫秒级，而不是纳秒级。

If you import within a function(s), then you only take the hit for loading if and when one of those functions is first called. As many have pointed out, if that doesn't happen at all, you save the load time. But if the function(s) get called a lot, you take a repeated though much smaller hit (for checking that it has been loaded; not for actually re-loading). On the other hand, as @aaronasterling pointed out you also save a little because importing within a function lets the function use slightly-faster local variable lookups to identify the name later (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/477096/python-import-coding-style/4789963#4789963).

下面是一个简单测试的结果，该测试从函数内部导入了一些内容。报告的时间(在2.3 GHz Intel Core i7上的Python 2.7.14中)如下所示(第2个调用比后面的调用多似乎是一致的，尽管我不知道为什么)。

 0 foo:   14429.0924 µs
 1 foo:      63.8962 µs
 2 foo:      10.0136 µs
 3 foo:       7.1526 µs
 4 foo:       7.8678 µs
 0 bar:       9.0599 µs
 1 bar:       6.9141 µs
 2 bar:       7.1526 µs
 3 bar:       7.8678 µs
 4 bar:       7.1526 µs

代码:

from __future__ import print_function
from time import time

def foo():
    import collections
    import re
    import string
    import math
    import subprocess
    return

def bar():
    import collections
    import re
    import string
    import math
    import subprocess
    return

t0 = time()
for i in xrange(5):
    foo()
    t1 = time()
    print("    %2d foo: %12.4f \xC2\xB5s" % (i, (t1-t0)*1E6))
    t0 = t1
for i in xrange(5):
    bar()
    t1 = time()
    print("    %2d bar: %12.4f \xC2\xB5s" % (i, (t1-t0)*1E6))
    t0 = t1

模块导入非常快，但不是即时的。这意味着:

将导入放在模块的顶部是可以的，因为这是一个微不足道的成本，只需要支付一次。 将导入放在函数中会导致对该函数的调用花费更长的时间。

所以如果你关心效率，把进口放在最上面。只有在分析显示有帮助的情况下，才将它们移动到函数中(您进行了分析，以查看哪里可以最好地提高性能，对吗??)

我所见过的执行惰性导入的最佳理由是:

可选的库支持。如果您的代码有多个使用不同库的路径，如果没有安装可选库，请不要中断。 在插件的__init__.py中，该插件可能被导入，但实际上没有使用。例如Bazaar插件，它们使用bzrlib的惰性加载框架。

我很惊讶没有看到重复负载检查的实际成本数字，尽管有很多很好的解释。

如果你在顶部导入，不管发生什么，你都要加载命中。这非常小，但通常是毫秒级，而不是纳秒级。

If you import within a function(s), then you only take the hit for loading if and when one of those functions is first called. As many have pointed out, if that doesn't happen at all, you save the load time. But if the function(s) get called a lot, you take a repeated though much smaller hit (for checking that it has been loaded; not for actually re-loading). On the other hand, as @aaronasterling pointed out you also save a little because importing within a function lets the function use slightly-faster local variable lookups to identify the name later (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/477096/python-import-coding-style/4789963#4789963).

下面是一个简单测试的结果，该测试从函数内部导入了一些内容。报告的时间(在2.3 GHz Intel Core i7上的Python 2.7.14中)如下所示(第2个调用比后面的调用多似乎是一致的，尽管我不知道为什么)。

 0 foo:   14429.0924 µs
 1 foo:      63.8962 µs
 2 foo:      10.0136 µs
 3 foo:       7.1526 µs
 4 foo:       7.8678 µs
 0 bar:       9.0599 µs
 1 bar:       6.9141 µs
 2 bar:       7.1526 µs
 3 bar:       7.8678 µs
 4 bar:       7.1526 µs

代码:

from __future__ import print_function
from time import time

def foo():
    import collections
    import re
    import string
    import math
    import subprocess
    return

def bar():
    import collections
    import re
    import string
    import math
    import subprocess
    return

t0 = time()
for i in xrange(5):
    foo()
    t1 = time()
    print("    %2d foo: %12.4f \xC2\xB5s" % (i, (t1-t0)*1E6))
    t0 = t1
for i in xrange(5):
    bar()
    t1 = time()
    print("    %2d bar: %12.4f \xC2\xB5s" % (i, (t1-t0)*1E6))
    t0 = t1

有趣的是，到目前为止，没有一个回答提到并行处理，当序列化的函数代码被推到其他核心时，可能需要将导入放在函数中，例如在ipyparallel的情况下。

以下是对这个问题的最新答案总结 而且 相关的 的问题。

PEP 8 recommends putting imports at the top. It's often more convenient to get ImportErrors when you first run your program rather than when your program first calls your function. Putting imports in the function scope can help avoid issues with circular imports. Putting imports in the function scope helps keep maintain a clean module namespace, so that it does not appear among tab-completion suggestions. Start-up time: imports in a function won't run until (if) that function is called. Might get significant with heavy-weight libraries. Even though import statements are super fast on subsequent runs, they still incur a speed penalty which can be significant if the function is trivial but frequently in use. Imports under the __name__ == "__main__" guard seem very reasonable. Refactoring might be easier if the imports are located in the function where they're used (facilitates moving it to another module). It can also be argued that this is good for readability. However, most would argue the contrary, i.e. Imports at the top enhance readability, since you can see all your dependencies at a glance. It seems unclear if dynamic or conditional imports favour one style over another.

Module initialization only occurs once - on the first import. If the module in question is from the standard library, then you will likely import it from other modules in your program as well. For a module as prevalent as datetime, it is also likely a dependency for a slew of other standard libraries. The import statement would cost very little then since the module intialization would have happened already. All it is doing at this point is binding the existing module object to the local scope.

将这些信息与可读性参数结合起来，我会说import语句最好在模块范围内。