Python - object has no attribute LDAP

Pulled my hair out over the following Python error while working with the LDAP package:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/alex/source/ldap-auth.py", line 122, in <module>
    user_authenticated = user_ldap_authenticated(ldap_url, ldap_bind_dn, password)
  File "/home/alex/source/ldap-auth.py", line 86, in user_ldap_authenticated
    ldapobject = ldap.initialize(ldap_url)
AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'initialize'

The error wasn’t at all straight forward. It turns out that I had a list object called ldap:

...
for ldap in ldap_urls:
  foo,bah = ldap
...

Apparently this clashed with the main LDAP object called ldap in the same namespace, therefore the error.

Moral - be careful with how you’re declaring your object names and the namesapaces.

Later -

Of course, this explains it:

>>> import ldap
>>> print(type(ldap))
<class 'module'>
>>>

I need to understand better how modules are objects in Python…