Getting Data From the Web - DZone Big Data

In this article, I will show you a nice and clever way to get/copy a table from a Wikipedia web page using a simple JavaScript syntax. If you are not familiar with JavaScript, don’t worry — you can still follow along.

By the way, this process is often described as scraping data with a browser. Let’s start!

Go to the following Wikipedia web page. Scroll down to the economy section. Switch to the developer tool. On Internet Explorer, press F12. On Google Chrome: click on the menu, then More Tools > Developer Tools (see picture below).

Now, it is time to select the table to copy the data. Click on the arrow of the Developer Tools, then click on the first element of the first table and click on the

tag to select the table (see below): Notice that there is a $0 after the tag . This sign allows us to process the element table; in other words, the $0 is the table now. Then write $0 and click Enter. The table selected earlier is now on the console. To save the table write this code and press enter . Warning: Be sure to use the straight apostrophe instead of the curly apostrophe around the . To access any cell in the table, i.e. the first cell, use this code and press Enter . The table is a set of lines and columns, and this is how it is accessible: . The  is just a way to display the data in the cell. Now, let’s get the data by making the following loop: var tempObj = [];
for (i = 0; i < wholeTable.length; i++) {
tempObj[i] = {
Country: "",
GDP: ""
};

//Copy the first column
tempObj[i].Country = wholeTable[i].cells[1].innerText;

//Copy the second column
tempObj[i].GDP = parseFloat(wholeTable[i].cells[2].innerText.replace(/[^\d\.\-]/g, ""));
} I create an empty object  (an array) to copy the cells’ data in the object properties’ Country and GDP. If you are using another table, feel free to write the titles that correspond to the table you would like to copy. You can copy any column by adding this line of code with the right column number: . The following line, , is just a trick to convert the text to a value; otherwise, I will get a string instead of a value. Well, guess what? The table is ready! The last step is to copy and paste the  and use it in any environment you want. Write  and press Enter. Check here. Feel free to share your experience using this method or another method. You are also welcome to ask any questions about this topic.