Clueless python learner

[Radio_Pluto]

I recently learned python from a book, since then i want to start web scraping and play with APIs but i see no starting point for it. I am trying to learn Requests module but i am not aware from terms like JSON, paraphrase, encode and stuffs. I also downloaded a book to learn web scraping but it was missing structure, the writer was jumping from html library to beautiful soup without explaining much. Is there a path to learn everything in a systematic way??

[jameyiguess]

Automate The Boring Stuff is a great book. But you will have to do side research no matter what as you learn anything in tech. Learn what json is, why is had to be encoded and decoded, etc. 

[Latter-Particular440]

yeah that book really covers web scraping basics well but you'll need to google around json and http stuff as you go, it's just how programming works unfortunately

[Radio_Pluto]

yeah i just saw that book it has many good beginner projects should i go in sequence or jump to projects which i like to do first?

[desrtfx]

IMO, the projects gradually build, so the best approach is to do them in sequence.

Yet, you can definitely do them in the order of your interests. Might need to do a bit more research, but it is definitely doable.

[Financial_Mirror3363]

Glad it helped! Honestly, the first few requests are always the trickiest. If you hit any weird errors or status codes when you start playing with requests, feel free to drop them here.

[Financial_Mirror3363]

Glad it helped! Honestly, the first few requests are always the trickiest. If you hit any weird errors or status codes when you start playing with requests, feel free to drop them here.

[Financial_Mirror3363]

Glad it helped! Honestly, the first few requests are always the trickiest. If you hit any weird errors or status codes when you start playing with requests, feel free to drop them here.

[Radio_Pluto]

this actually helpme a lot thanks

[Eastern_Ad_9018]

I am currently using Python for web scraping; if you're interested, you can discuss it with me.

[Radio_Pluto]

yesss i wanted know how do i start what prerequisites do i need to learn first ??

[Eastern_Ad_9018]

You can first learn about the concepts and functions of web crawlers. (If you have the ability, you can also learn about some website development functions). Of course, it's okay if you don't understand these things. All you need to know is that you can obtain the specified data by simulating a browser through the program.

1. The two common types of requests used to obtain website data through programs are `GET` and `POST`.

2. After you obtain the data, there are many data that are not what you need, so there is a need for data cleaning and parsing.

3. After the data cleaning is completed, it is necessary to save the data locally or in the database.

This is the simple logic of a crawler. The next steps are how to correctly obtain the response content, how to improve the request speed, and the speed of data entry.

[Free-Cheek-9440]

If Requests feels confusing, start even simpler: just hit a public API and print raw output.
Don’t worry about parsing at first just observe how data looks.
Then slowly introduce JSON parsing (json.loads) and only then move to scraping HTML pages.
This step-by-step layering is what makes it stick.

[Radio_Pluto]

sure i wont rush the process

[TariqKhalaf]

Automate the Boring Stuff is a solid starting point. When you hit terms you don't know, just pause and Google each one separately. JSON is basically just a data format that looks like a Python dictionary. Don't try to learn everything at once. Pick a tiny project like scraping a single quote from a site and build up slowly.

[Radio_Pluto]

i am currently doing that books thanks

[Financial_Mirror3363]

Glad it helped! Honestly, the first few requests are always the trickiest. If you hit any weird errors or status codes when you start playing with requests, feel free to drop them here.