How to send a request in Python?

Chloe 39 Published: 11/11/2024

How to send a request in Python?

I'd be happy to explain how to make a request using Python!

In Python, you can use the requests library (which is already included in many Python environments) to send requests and get responses from web servers. The requests library is based on the HTTP/1.1 protocol and provides a simple interface for making HTTP requests.

Here's an example of how to make a GET request using the requests library:

import requests

url = "http://www.example.com"  # URL of the server you're trying to connect to


response = requests.get(url)   # Make the GET request and store the response in the 'response' variable


if response.status_code == 200:


print("The server responded with a 200 status code, which means it was successful.")


elif response.status_code == 404:


print("Oh no! The server returned a 404 error, which means the requested URL could not be found.")


else:


print(f"Uh-oh... Server responded with {response.status_code}.")

The requests library also allows you to make POST requests by adding parameters in the form of key-value pairs. For example, let's say we want to send a JSON object:

import requests

import json


url = "http://www.example.com"  # URL of the server you're trying to connect to


data = {'key': 'value', 'another_key': 'another_value'}  # Data we want to send in JSON format


response = requests.post(url, json=data)


if response.status_code == 200:


print("The server responded with a 200 status code, which means it was successful.")


elif response.status_code == 404:


print("Oh no! The server returned a 404 error, which means the requested URL could not be found.")


else:


print(f"Uh-oh... Server responded with {response.status_code}.")

The requests library also allows you to add headers and query parameters when making requests. For example:

import requests

url = "http://www.example.com"  # URL of the server you're trying to connect to


headers = {'User-Agent': 'My Python Script'}   # Add a custom User-Agent header


params = {'param1': 'value', 'param2': 'another_value'}  # Add query parameters


response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)


if response.status_code == 200:


print("The server responded with a 200 status code, which means it was successful.")


elif response.status_code == 404:


print("Oh no! The server returned a 404 error, which means the requested URL could not be found.")


else:


print(f"Uh-oh... Server responded with {response.status_code}.")

So there you have it - a quick primer on how to send requests using Python's requests library!

Which Python library makes it very easy to make HTTP requests from Python?

I'm happy to respond in English for you!

When it comes to making HTTP requests in Python, one of the most popular and widely-used libraries is requests. It's a simple yet powerful library that makes it easy to send HTTP requests and interact with web servers.

requests was created by Kenneth Reitz and is now maintained by a community of contributors. It's a thin wrapper around the Python standard library's urllib3, which provides a higher-level interface for working with HTTP requests.

One of the key features of requests is its ease of use. You can make GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and HEAD requests using simple syntax:

import requests

response = requests.get('http://www.example.com')


print(response.status_code)

Or:

import requests

data = {'key': 'value'}


response = requests.post('http://www.example.com', json=data)


print(response.json())

You can also add headers, query parameters, and more using the headers, params, and other keyword arguments:

import requests

response = requests.get('http://www.example.com',


headers={'User-Agent': 'My Python Script'},


params={'param1': 'value1'})


print(response.url)

requests also provides support for JSON, XML, and other data formats. For example, you can send a POST request with JSON data:

import requests

data = {'key': 'value'}


response = requests.post('http://www.example.com', json=data)


print(response.json())

This will send the following HTTP request:

POST / HTTP/1.1

Content-Type: application/json


{"key": "value"}

requests also handles SSL/TLS certificates and verifies the identity of the server by default. You can disable this behavior if necessary.

Another key feature of requests is its support for sessions. A session allows you to persist certain parameters across requests, which can be useful when making multiple requests to the same domain. For example:

import requests

s = requests.Session()


response = s.get('http://www.example.com')


print(response.status_code)


response = s.post('http://www.example.com', json={'key': 'value'})


print(response.json())

In this example, we create a session and make two requests to the same domain. The second request uses the same cookies and other parameters as the first request.

requests is widely used in industry and academia for tasks such as web scraping, API integration, and testing. It's also easy to use and has a simple syntax that makes it easy to get started with HTTP requests in Python.

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