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Now how do I reload the module sys using the variable want_reload ? I can't supply it directly to importlib.reload() because it says it expects a module, not str.

It would be better if an invalid string, or a module that's not loaded, is supplied, e.g. "........" , that it raises an exception.

importlib.import_module() won't reload, but returns a ref to the module even if already loaded:

import sys
import importlib
def some_func():
    return "sys"
want_reload = some_func()
want_reload_module = importlib.import_module(want_reload)
importlib.reload(want_reload_module)
                I want to avoid that, if a module is not loaded, don't load it. Right now it seems importlib.import_module will import the module if it's not loaded already.
– iBug
                Sep 2, 2018 at 7:05
                np. Hmm so you want to reload a module but only if it is loaded. That is not clear from your question. But anyway, loaded modules are listed in sys,modules
– spinkus
                Sep 2, 2018 at 7:11
Hinted by @spinkus's answer, I came up with this solution:
Since I don't want to load a module if it's not loaded already, I can fetch the ref from sys.modules
want_reload = some_func()
    want_reload_module = sys.modules[want_reload]
    importlib.reload(want_reload_module)
except KeyError:
    raise ImportError("Module {} not loaded. Can't reload".format(want_reload))
                would be better to check if want_reload in sys.modules, instead of just using a try-except to catch the inevitable errors
– mtsolmn
                Nov 6, 2020 at 8:55
                When attempting to reload a local module (relative import) I get "ModuleNotFoundError: spec not found for the module 'block'" is there any way to create this spec or avoid this error?
– ChildishGiant
                Feb 2, 2021 at 23:11
        
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