When you want to use functions defined in imported modules, you have to include the module name. So you can't just say buildConnectionString , it has to be odbchelper.buildConnectionString . If you've used classes in Java, this should feel vaguely familiar. Once you import a Python module, you access its functions with module . Everything in Python is an object, and almost everything has attributes and methods.
Strings are objects.
Lists are objects. Functions are objects. Even modules are objects, as we'll see shortly. Further reading Python Reference Manual explains exactly what it means to say that everything in Python is an object .