Work through practical examples to unlock the full potential of web scraping with Python and gain valuable insights from high-quality data

Key Features

• Build an initial portfolio of web scraping projects with detailed explanations
• Grasp Python programming fundamentals related to web scraping and data extraction
• Acquire skills to code web scrapers, store data in desired formats, and employ the data professionally

Book Description

Web scraping is a powerful tool for extracting data from the web, but it can be daunting for those without a technical background. Designed for novices, this book will help you grasp the fundamentals of web scraping and Python programming, even if you have no prior experience.

Adopting a practical, hands-on approach, this updated edition of Hands-On Web Scraping with Python uses real-world examples and exercises to explain key concepts. Starting with an introduction to web scraping fundamentals and Python programming, you’ll cover a range of scraping techniques, including requests, lxml, pyquery, Scrapy, and Beautiful Soup. You’ll also get to grips with advanced topics such as secure web handling, web APIs, Selenium for web scraping, PDF extraction, regex, data analysis, EDA reports, visualization, and machine learning.

This book emphasizes the importance of learning by doing. Each chapter integrates examples that demonstrate practical techniques and related skills. By the end of this book, you’ll be equipped with the skills to extract data from websites, a solid understanding of web scraping and Python programming, and the confidence to use these skills in your projects for analysis, visualization, and information discovery.

What you will learn

• Master web scraping techniques to extract data from real-world websites
• Implement popular web scraping libraries such as requests, lxml, Scrapy, and pyquery
• Develop advanced skills in web scraping, APIs, PDF extraction, regex, and machine learning
• Analyze and visualize data with Pandas and Plotly
• Develop a practical portfolio to demonstrate your web scraping skills
• Understand best practices and ethical concerns in web scraping and data extraction

Who this book is for

This book is for beginners who want to learn web scraping and data extraction using Python. No prior programming knowledge is required, but a basic understanding of web-related concepts such as websites, browsers, and HTML is assumed. If you enjoy learning by doing and want to build a portfolio of web scraping projects and delve into data-related studies and application, then this book is tailored for your needs.

Table of Contents

1. Web Scraping Fundamentals
2. Python programming for Data and Web
3. Searching and Processing Web Documents
4. Scraping Using PyQuery, a jQuery-Like Library for Python
5. Scraping the Web with Scrapy and Beautiful Soup
6. Working with the Secure Web
7. Data Extraction Using Web APIs
8. Using Selenium to Scrape the Web
9. Using Regular Expressions and PDFs
10. Data Mining, Analysis, and Visualization
11. Machine Learning and Web Scraping
12. After Scraping – Next Steps and Data Analysis

About the Author

Anish Chapagain is a software engineer with a passion for data science, its processes, and Python programming, which began around 2007. He has been working with web scraping and analysis-related tasks for more than 5 years, and is currently pursuing freelance projects in the web scraping domain. Anish previously worked as a trainer, web/software developer, and as a banker, where he was exposed to data and gained further insights into topics including data analysis, visualization, data mining, information processing, and knowledge discovery. He has an MSc in computer systems from Bangor University (University of Wales), United Kingdom, and an Executive MBA from Himalayan Whitehouse International College, Kathmandu, Nepal.