Introduction to Requests Library

What is Requests?

The Requests library is a popular Python library for making HTTP requests easier. It abstracts the complexities of making requests behind a simple API, allowing you to send HTTP requests with just a few lines of code.

Key Takeaway: Requests simplifies the process of working with HTTP in Python, making it an essential tool for web scraping, API interactions, and more.

Installation

To install the Requests library, you can use pip, the Python package installer. Run the following command:

pip install requests

Basic Usage

To make a basic GET request using the Requests library, you can use the following example:

import requests

response = requests.get('https://api.github.com')
print(response.status_code)
print(response.json())

This example sends a GET request to the GitHub API and prints the status code and JSON response.

Advanced Usage

The Requests library also supports sending data with POST requests and handling headers.

url = 'https://httpbin.org/post'
data = {'key': 'value'}

response = requests.post(url, data=data)
print(response.json())

In this example, a POST request is sent to httpbin, which echoes back the data provided.

Best Practices

• Always handle exceptions with try/except blocks.
• Use session objects for persistent parameters across requests.
• Check the response status before processing the data.
• Use timeouts to prevent hanging requests.

FAQ

response = requests.post(url, json={'key': 'value'})

response = requests.get(url, timeout=5)