Module 'urllib' has no attribute 'urlopen' [Solved]

Did you encounter AttributeError: module ‘urllib’ has no attribute ‘urlopen’? Don’t worry.

This error is common and there are various ways to fix it.

In this article, we will go over what error means, why it occurs, and how to fix it.

Before we proceed to attributeerror let’s know first what is ‘urlopen’…

What is Urlopen

urlopen is a function that is part of the urllib module of python.

Further, this function is utilized to open URLs, thus returns a file-like object which contains the data from the URL.

In addition, the ‘urlopen’ function is part of the ‘urllib2’ module in Python 2.

However, in Python 3, the ‘urlopen’ function has been moved to the ‘urllib.request’ module.

This indicates we need to use ‘urllib.request.urlopen()’ instead of ‘urllib.urlopen()’.

What is Attributeerror: module urllib has no attribute urlopen?

The AttributeError: module ‘urllib’ has no attribute ‘urlopen’ error occurs when we are trying to use the urlopen in Python 3.

Along with the old syntax of urllib.urlopen().

Unfortunately, this will not work since in Python 3 urlopen is not part of urllib module anymore.

Here is how this error occurs:

import urllib

response = urllib.urlopen('http://www.example.com/')

Output:

Attributeerror module urllib has no attribute urlopen errorAttributeerror module urllib has no attribute urlopen error

Possible reasons why this error occur

This error occurs which could be due to a few different reasons:

A typo in the function name (e.g. urllib.urlopenn instead of urllib.urlopen)

A version mismatch (e.g. urllib2.urlopen is used instead of urllib.urlopen)

A problem with the Python environment (e.g. the urllib module is not installed or is not accessible)

How to fix Attributeerror: module urllib has no attribute urlopen

To solve the AttributeError: module ‘urllib’ has no attribute ‘urlopen’ error, it needs to use the correct syntax for Python 3.

Apparently, we will use ‘urllib.request.urlopen()’ instead of ‘urllib.urlopen()’.

Here is an example using the correct syntax:

import urllib.request

response = urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.example.com/')
html = response.read()
print(html)

In the code above, we import the urllib.request module. Hence, to open the Url we use the ‘urlopen()’ function.

Then the read() method read the data from the Url, which prints it to the console.

Example Output:

b'<!doctype html>\n<html>\n<head>\n    <title>Example Domain</title>\n\n    <meta charset="utf-8" />\n    <meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />\n    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />\n    <style type="text/css">\n    body {\n        background-color: #f0f0f2;\n        margin: 0;\n        padding: 0;\n        font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;\n        \n    }\n    div {\n        width: 600px;\n        margin: 5em auto;\n        padding: 2em;\n        background-color: #fdfdff;\n        border-radius: 0.5em;\n        box-shadow: 2px 3px 7px 2px rgba(0,0,0,0.02);\n    }\n    a:link, a:visited {\n        color: #38488f;\n        text-decoration: none;\n    }\n    @media (max-width: 700px) {\n        div {\n            margin: 0 auto;\n            width: auto;\n        }\n    }\n    </style>    \n</head>\n\n<body>\n<div>\n    <h1>Example Domain</h1>\n    <p>This domain is for use in illustrative examples in documents. You may use this\n    domain in literature without prior coordination or asking for permission.</p>\n    <p><a href="https://www.iana.org/domains/example">More information...</a></p>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n'

Other potential attribute errors with urllib

Since the ‘AttributeError: module ‘urllib’ has no attribute ‘urlopen’’ error is the most common error with urllib…

There are other potential attribute errors that we may encounter.

One of these conflicts with other modules is ‘urllib3’ or ‘request’.

To avoid the naming error, use the right syntax when importing modules.
For instance, when using urllib use this:

import urllib3

Meanwhile when using request, import like this:

import requests

It is important to check the imports when encountering the urllib error to check if the module and function names are right.

FAQS

What is the urllib library

The urllib library is a Python module that provides a high-level interface for accessing and retrieving data from the Internet.

Can I use urllib2.urlopen instead of urllib.urlopen?

Yes, if you are using Python 2, you can use urllib2.urlopen instead of urllib.urlopen.

How can I fix the “AttributeError: module ‘urllib’ has no attribute ‘urlopen'” error message?

You can fix this error message by importing the urllib.request module, checking your Python version.

As well as installing the urllib library if it is not already installed, or checking for any naming conflicts.

Conclusion

In this article, we have covered what the ‘AttributeError: module ‘urllib’ has no attribute ‘urlopen’’ error means, why it occurs, and how to fix it.

By following the tips and examples provided in this article, you should be able to avoid and fix attribute errors with urllib.

We hope you’ve learned a lot from this article.

If you are finding solutions to some errors you might encounter we also have Attributeerror: ‘dict’ object has no attribute ‘read’.

Thank you for reading 🙂

Module ‘urllib’ has no attribute ‘urlopen’