Data scraping: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:35, 14 November 2024

Revision as of 12:33, 25 January 2025

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Normally, [[Data transmission|data transfer]] between programs is accomplished using [[data structures]] suited for [[Automation|automated]] processing by [[computers]], not people. Such interchange [[File format|formats]] and [[Protocol (computing)|protocols]] are typically rigidly structured, well-documented, easily [[parsing|parsed]], and minimize ambiguity. Very often, these transmissions are not human-readable at all.

Thus, the key element that distinguishes data scraping from regular [[parsing]] is that the outputdata being scrapedconsumed is intended for display to an [[End-user (computer science)|end-user]], rather than as an input to another program. It is therefore usually neither documented nor structured for convenient parsing. Data scraping often involves ignoring [[binary data]] (usually images or multimedia data), [[Display device|display]] formatting, redundant labels, superfluous commentary, and other information which is either irrelevant or hinders automated processing.

Data scraping is most often done either to [[Interface (computing)|interface]] to a [[legacy system]], which has no other mechanism which is compatible with current [[computer hardware|hardware]], or to interface to a third-party system which does not provide a more convenient [[Application programming interface|API]]. In the second case, the operator of the third-party system will often see [[screen scraping]] as unwanted, due to reasons such as increased system [[load (computing)|load]], the loss of [[advertisement]] [[revenue]], or the loss of control of the information content.