Introduction

So far in this book, we have focused on using Jupyter to build reproducible data analysis and modeling workflows. We'll continue with a similar approach in this chapter, but with the main focus being on data acquisition. In particular, we will show you how data can be acquired from the web using HTTP requests. This will involve making API requests and scraping web pages by parsing HTML. In addition to these new topics, we'll continue to use pandas for building and transforming our datasets.

Before we cover HTTP requests and how to use them in Python, we'll discuss the importance of gathering data from the web in general. The amount of data that's available online is huge, and it's continuously growing at a staggering pace. Additionally, it's becoming increasingly important for driving business growth. Consider, for example, the ongoing global shift from technologies such as newspapers, magazines, and TV to online content. With customized...