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Performing HTTP requests in Python using urllib

Now that you know the basics behind HTTP GET requests, it's time to perform some of your own. In this interactive exercise, you will ping our very own DataCamp servers to perform a GET request to extract information from the first coding exercise of this course, "https://campus.datacamp.com/courses/1606/4135?ex=2".

In the next exercise, you'll extract the HTML itself. Right now, however, you are going to package and send the request and then catch the response.

This is a part of the course

“Intermediate Importing Data in Python”

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Exercise instructions

  • Import the functions urlopen and Request from the subpackage urllib.request.
  • Package the request to the url "https://campus.datacamp.com/courses/1606/4135?ex=2" using the function Request() and assign it to request.
  • Send the request and catch the response in the variable response with the function urlopen().
  • Run the rest of the code to see the datatype of response and to close the connection!

Hands-on interactive exercise

Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.

# Import packages


# Specify the url
url = "https://campus.datacamp.com/courses/1606/4135?ex=2"

# This packages the request: request


# Sends the request and catches the response: response


# Print the datatype of response
print(type(response))

# Be polite and close the response!
response.close()
Edit and Run Code

This exercise is part of the course

Intermediate Importing Data in Python

IntermediateSkill Level
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Improve your Python data importing skills and learn to work with web and API data.

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The web is a rich source of data from which you can extract various types of insights and findings. In this chapter, you will learn how to get data from the web, whether it is stored in files or in HTML. You'll also learn the basics of scraping and parsing web data.

Exercise 1: Importing flat files from the webExercise 2: Importing flat files from the web: your turn!Exercise 3: Opening and reading flat files from the webExercise 4: Importing non-flat files from the webExercise 5: HTTP requests to import files from the webExercise 6: Performing HTTP requests in Python using urllib
Exercise 7: Printing HTTP request results in Python using urllibExercise 8: Performing HTTP requests in Python using requestsExercise 9: Scraping the web in PythonExercise 10: Parsing HTML with BeautifulSoupExercise 11: Turning a webpage into data using BeautifulSoup: getting the textExercise 12: Turning a webpage into data using BeautifulSoup: getting the hyperlinks

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