python relative import not working as expected - python-3.x

Question

I have the following module package organization
models
├── __init__.py
├── __pycache__
│   ├── __init__.cpython-34.pyc
│   ├── model.cpython-34.pyc
│   └── user.cpython-34.pyc
└── user.py
1 directory, 5 files
following are the contents of my __init__.py:
from flask_sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemy
db = SQLAlchemy()
from .user import User
on running
>>> from models import *
>>> dir()
['SQLAlchemy', 'User', '__builtins__', '__doc__', '__loader__', '__name__', '__package__', '__spec__', 'db', 'user']
Notice that user is also in the list, whereas I explicitly did from .user import User inside __init__.py.
I am not able to understand this behavior, because if I simply do
>>> from models.user import User
>>> dir()
['User', '__builtins__', '__doc__', '__loader__', '__name__', '__package__', '__spec__']
I only get User.
How to achieve the same result with the __init__.py file, i.e. how to import only db and User and not user.
Note: user is the module user.py and User is the class inside it.

Answer 1

Add the line:
__all__ = ['User', 'db']
at the beginning of your __init__.py.
__all__ whitelists the names that will be imported by from module import *.
From the docs:
Modules can now control which names are imported when from module import * is used, by defining an __all__ attribute containing a list of names that will be imported. One common complaint is that if the module imports other modules such as sys orstring, from moduleimport * will add them to the importing module’s namespace. To fix this, simply list the public names in __all__:
# List public names
__all__ = ['Database', 'open']