exercises.md

Introduction to Web Scraping with Python

NaLette Brodnax

Workshop Exercises

Part 1: Introduction

1. Complete the one-minute poll at bit.ly/dsspoll.

Part 2: Getting the Tools

1. Create a new script called review.py.

Part 3: Python Review

1. Create a list called datasets with the following names as contents: airport, baseball, calcium, electricbill, and freethrows. Use print statements and references to display the following:

   • the first item in the list
   • the third and fourth items in the list
   • the second-to-last item in the list

   Create a dictionary called data_info for the airport dataset. The dataset's title is US Airport Statistics and it has 135 observations. Use a print statement and reference to display the title of dataset.

2. Write a loop that will display each name in datasets with the extension .txt on the end.

3. Create a function called add_extensions() that accepts a list of strings, adds '.txt' to each string in the list, and returns a list of the new strings. Try calling add_extensions() with datasets as an argument.

4. Add a statement to import functions from the requests Python library. Use the .get() method to request the contents of the following webpage: http://ww2.amstat.org/publications/jse/jse_data_archive.htm. Use a print statement to display the HTTP response code for the request.

Click here to download the code for all exercises.