Web Scraping: Extracting Data from Websites in R

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Web scraping in R involves extracting data from websites by programmatically interacting with the HTML and XML elements of web pages. There are several R packages that facilitate web scraping. Here’s a comprehensive guide covering key aspects of web scraping in R:

1. Understanding Web Scraping:

• Web scraping involves retrieving data from websites, usually by sending HTTP requests, parsing HTML content, and extracting relevant information.

2. Key R Packages for Web Scraping:

• rvest: Designed for web scraping and follows the principles of the tidyverse.
• xml2: Provides functions for working with XML and HTML content.
• httr: A package for working with HTTP requests.

3. Installation of Packages:

# Install and load required packages
install.packages(c("rvest", "xml2", "httr"))
library(rvest)
library(xml2)
library(httr)

4. HTTP Requests with httr:

• Use the httr package to send HTTP requests to the website.

# Send a GET request
response <- GET("https://example.com")

# Check the status code
status_code(response)