Data Scraping
Data scraping is the automated process of extracting structured data from websites, documents, or other sources, typically using software tools or scripts. It involves parsing HTML, XML, or other formats to collect information like text, images, or links for analysis, storage, or integration into other systems. This technique is widely used for gathering data from public web pages, APIs, or databases when direct access isn't available.
Developers should learn data scraping when they need to collect large volumes of data from online sources for tasks such as market research, price monitoring, content aggregation, or machine learning datasets. It's essential for building web crawlers, competitive analysis tools, or automating data collection from multiple websites, especially in fields like e-commerce, finance, and journalism where real-time data is critical.