Why Use Python for Web Scraping Instead of Excel?

[Leo_Chau_430]

TL;DR

I am trying to write a program that can automatically scrap through the website https://www.goodschool.hk/ss to make an Excel that contains phone number, address, email address and fax number of all the secondary schools, primary schools and kindergarten in Hong Kong. However, I have faced some problems... My code can be ran successfully, but the excel generated is blank.

My code is as follow:

import pandas as pd
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import requests
import os

url = 'https://www.goodschool.hk/ss'

response = requests.get(url)
html = response.content

soup = BeautifulSoup(html, 'html.parser')

school_items = soup.find_all('div', {'class': 'school-item'})

school_names_en = []
school_names_zh = []
school_addresses_en = []
school_addresses_zh = []
school_phones = []
school_emails = []
school_faxes = []

for school_item in school_items:

    name_elements = school_item.select('a.school-name')
    school_names_en.append(name_elements[0].text.strip())
    school_names_zh.append(name_elements[1].text.strip())

    address_elements = school_item.select('div.school-address')
    school_addresses_en.append(address_elements[0].text.strip())
    school_addresses_zh.append(address_elements[1].text.strip())

    contact_elements = school_item.select('div.contact-info')
    school_phones.append(contact_elements[0].text.strip())
    school_emails.append(contact_elements[1].text.strip())
    school_faxes.append(contact_elements[2].text.strip())

df = pd.DataFrame({
    'School Name (English)': school_names_en,
    'School Name (Chinese)': school_names_zh,
    'Address (English)': school_addresses_en,
    'Address (Chinese)': school_addresses_zh,
    'Phone Number': school_phones,
    'Email Address': school_emails,
    'Fax Number': school_faxes
})

desktop_path = os.path.join(os.path.expanduser("~"), "Desktop")
excel_file_path = os.path.join(desktop_path, "school_data.xlsx")
df.to_excel(excel_file_path, index=False)

if os.path.exists(excel_file_path):
    print("Excel file generated successfully!")
else:
    print("Failed to generate Excel file.")

 

[hmmm27]

Why don't you just e-mail them, asking if a non-html list is available ? Other resources may include local school boards, etc.

 

[Leo_Chau_430]

I have found the contact list of the schools on the website https://data.gov.hk/tc/ However the list there do not have the email address of the schools...

 

[PeterDonis]

My code is as follow

Code should be in a BBCode code block. For one thing, doing that preserves the exact formatting and whitespace of your code, which with Python is very important.

I have used magic moderator powers to edit your OP to put your code in a code block. Please review and make sure that the code formatting and indentation is correct (it looks ok to me but you're the one that wrote the code).

 

[Leo_Chau_430]

Code should be in a BBCode code block. For one thing, doing that preserves the exact formatting and whitespace of your code, which with Python is very important.

I have used magic moderator powers to edit your OP to put your code in a code block. Please review and make sure that the code formatting and indentation is correct (it looks ok to me but you're the one that wrote the code).

Sorry I am new to this forum, you said your code is as follow, but I cannot see them, where can I find it

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

As a debug measure, print out the dataframe and make sure it contains data.

 

[Leo_Chau_430]

As a debug measure, print out the dataframe and make sure it contains data.

Ya I have tried to print out the data but it seems that the data is not extracted properly

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Ya I have tried to print out the data but it seems that the data is not extracted properly

Next debug is to print out each school_item. I suspect you're not parsing the classes right.

 

[Leo_Chau_430]

Next debug is to print out each school_item. I suspect you're not parsing the classes right.

I have just checked, school_items are blank data sets. However, when I print soup it has a valid output

 

[PeterDonis]

you said your code is as follow, but I cannot see them, where can I find it

I meant your code, the code you posted in the OP of this thread. I have put it inside a BBCode code block. If you can't see that, try reloading the page.

 

[Leo_Chau_430]

I meant your code, the code you posted in the OP of this thread. I have put it inside a BBCode code block. If you can't see that, try reloading the page.

Thank you I can see the code now. I think the identation should be correct.

 

[pbuk]

My code can be ran successfully, but the excel generated is blank.

Did you get that code from ChatGPT? Wherever it came from, you need to approach writing and debugging code in a different way.

Why don't you try inserting some print() statements to see what data is being scraped?

Spoiler

The contents of the page are generated by JavaScript so BeutifulSoup doesn't see what you see.

Spoiler

Even if BeautifulSoup could run JavaScript the selectors you are trying to use e.g. {'class': 'school-item'}) don't exist in the page.

 

[Leo_Chau_430]

Did you get that code from ChatGPT? Wherever it came from, you need to approach writing and debugging code in a different way.

Why don't you try inserting some print() statements to see what data is being scraped?

Spoiler

The contents of the page are generated by JavaScript so BeutifulSoup doesn't see what you see.

Spoiler

Even if BeautifulSoup could run JavaScript the selectors you are trying to use e.g. {'class': 'school-item'}) don't exist in the page.

Thank you very much!

 

[Grelbr42]

Just curious why you chose Python when MS Excel supports this sort of task natively. If the web site you are scraping is cooperative you can sometimes even do it directly in an Excel worksheet with no code required.