Table data is common among websites related to finance, sports, etc. This tutorial will guide you on how to scrape table data.
If you have learned how to grab a list of data, then table data is more or less similar (Extract a list). You can take each row of the table as an element of list data. Then, each table cell is equal to a sub-element in the element.
How to collect the table data with Octoparse? Go ahead with this tutorial!
Case URL: https://www.cnn.com/markets
The main steps are shown in the menu on the right. [Download the sample task file here.]
1. Use the Auto-detect function to set up the workflow
Octoparse supports auto-detecting the table and capturing all the columns. With this feature, you just need to
Copy the URL into Octoparse and click Start to create a new task
Click on Auto-detect web page data in the Tips panel to create a workflow
Check if the data preview shows what you want. If not, please click on Switch auto detect results until you see the right data.
Untick the Add a page scroll option if the website does not require it
Click Create workflow
The created workflow will be like this:
Tip: Check out Lesson 1: Start with Auto-detect for details about auto-detect.
2. Set up the workflow manually
What if the auto-detect fails or doesn't collect the complete table data? In this case, you need to set up the task manually. Here are the steps:
Select the first cell in the first row of the table, and then click the Expand the selection button until it selects the whole first row
Tip: You can click Turn OFF Auto-detection or Cancel Auto-detection to stop auto-detect if it starts automatically.
Choose Select all child elements on the Tips panel.
All the child elements in the first row are selected, and then Octoparse finds other similar elements highlighted in red.
Choose Select all similar groups from the Tips panel.
All the child elements in the table are selected and highlighted in green.
Click Element data on the Tips panel.
Edit data fields if needed (optional)
You now have all the data fields set up for the task. You can refine the data fields in the Data Preview section.
Double-click the field name to rename the data fields
Click the More button next to the field's name for more actions
