Python Requests library and its useful functions

Today I am going to discuss the Python requests library and its useful functions. So, let’s begin the requests library in Python to make HTTP, requests:

Step 1: Install the requests library (if not already installed)

pip install requests

Step 2: Import the requests module

import requests

Step 3: Sending GET Requests

# Sending a basic GET request to a URL
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data')

# Accessing the response content
print(response.text)

# Checking the response status code
print(response.status_code)

# Accessing response headers
print(response.headers)

Step 4: Sending POST Requests

# Sending a POST request with data
data = {'name': 'John', 'age': 30}
response = requests.post('https://api.example.com/submit', data=data)

# Sending a POST request with JSON data
import json
data = {'name': 'John', 'age': 30}
response = requests.post('https://api.example.com/submit', json=json.dumps(data))

# Accessing the response content
print(response.text)

# Checking the response status code
print(response.status_code)

# Accessing response headers
print(response.headers)

Step 5: Sending Headers and Query Parameters

# Sending headers with the request
headers = {'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0'}
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data', headers=headers)

# Sending query parameters with the request
params = {'param1': 'value1', 'param2': 'value2'}
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data', params=params)

Step 6: Handling Errors and Exceptions

# Checking for request errors
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data')
if response.status_code == 200:
    print("Request succeeded")
else:
    print("Request failed with status code:", response.status_code)

# Handling exceptions
try:
    response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data')
    response.raise_for_status()
    print("Request succeeded")
except requests.exceptions.HTTPError as err:
    print("HTTP Error:", err)
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as err:
    print("Request Exception:", err)

These are some of the basic features and functionalities of the requests library in Python. The library provides many more options and capabilities for making HTTP requests, handling authentication, handling cookies, working with sessions, and more.

Now important functions,

So, Here are some commonly used functions and features of the requests library in Python, along with examples:

GET Request with Query Parameters:

import requests

params = {'key': 'value'}
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data', params=params)
print(response.text)

POST Request with Form Data:

import requests

data = {'username': 'john', 'password': 'secret'}
response = requests.post('https://api.example.com/login', data=data)
print(response.text)

POST Request with JSON Data:

import requests
import json

data = {'name': 'John', 'age': 30}
response = requests.post('https://api.example.com/submit', json=data)
print(response.text)

Custom Headers and Authentication:

import requests

headers = {'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0'}
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data', headers=headers)

auth = ('username', 'password')
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data', auth=auth)

Handling Response Content:

import requests

response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data')

# Get response content as bytes
content = response.content

# Get response content as text
text = response.text

# Get response content as JSON
json_data = response.json()

Handling Cookies:

import requests

# Send a request and receive cookies
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/login')
cookies = response.cookies

# Send subsequent requests with cookies
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/profile', cookies=cookies)

Handling Timeouts:

import requests

# Set a timeout for the request
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data', timeout=5)

Handling Redirects:

import requests

# Automatically follow redirects
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/redirect', allow_redirects=True)

# Disable automatic redirects
response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/redirect', allow_redirects=False)

Session Management:

import requests

# Create a session
session = requests.Session()

# Send requests using the session
response = session.get('https://api.example.com/data')

# Reuse the session for subsequent requests
response = session.get('https://api.example.com/profile')

These are just a few examples of the functionalities provided by the requests library. The library offers more features such as handling SSL certificates, handling proxies, streaming responses, handling multipart/form-data, and more.

You can refer to the official requests documentation for more information: https://docs.python-requests.org/