GIS data wrangling with python - Gridded Street Finder

 Here we got two shapefile layers, one is a line representing roads and the other is polygon representing grid mesh labeled as seen below.

A road could extend multiple grids and we want to get all the names of the grid in which a road is found.

As an example, the selected road in yellow color below extends from grid A1, B1, C1, D1, E1, F1, G1 and H1.

We now need to join the attributes of the two layers and export to CSV file as seen below like so: Vector >> Data Management Tools >> Join Attribute by Location..

The output should be a roads layer with attribute from the grids layer. Export the attribute to CSV for wrangling in python.

As you can see from the CSV file above, there multiple road names with different grid labels. As an example, we have three rows for '1st Avenue' as highlighted above. We just want it on on row with all the grid labels separated by comma like this: 1st Avenue - F3, E4, F4.

# Read the CSV file...
df = pd.read_csv(r"C:\Users\Yusuf_08039508010\Desktop\Gwarinpa St Guide\Street_Finder.csv")

# Group the data by street col...
group = df.groupby('Street')

# Create a series where each group item has unique values from the grid col....
df2 = group.apply(lambda x: x['Grid'].unique())

df2

What the code above does is: for each unique value in 'Street' column, get unique values in 'Grid' column. As seen from the output above, that is what we wanted. If you save the series above to file, you will have the below output which you can further clean to the final format.

That is it!

Working with Regular Expression in QGIS

Regular Expression (RegEx or RegExp) is a tool used to handle strings/texts and data validation, searching, search & replace, string splitting etc. RegEx has now become a standard features in a wide range of languages and popular tools, including GIS tools, Text editors, word processors, system tools, database engines, etc.

In this article, we will specifically look at RegExp in the QGIS tool.

RegEx is available from many parts in QGIS, here we will only be looking at it in manipulating values of the attribute table.

From the 'Select Feature using an Expression' dialog window, you should find group of 'String Functions'. This group contains functions that operates on strings (e.g., that replace, convert to upper case).

As you can see, there are three main functions with direct support for regular expression namely; regexp_match(), regexp_replace() and regexp_substr().

regexp_match

Returns the first matching position matching a regular expression within a string, or 0 if the substring is not found.

regexp_replace

Returns a string with the supplied regular expression replaced.

regexp_substr

Returns the portion of a string which matches a supplied regular expression.

R packages for working with shapefile

 A shapefile (points, lines, and polygons) can be read into R object using any of the following packages: sf, rgdal, maptools and PBSmapping.

First you need to install them as follow: install.packages(c('sf', 'rgdal', 'maptools', 'PBSmapping'))

The code below shows how to each package to read in shapefile into an object for further processing.

library(sf)
library(rgdal)
library(maptools)
library(PBSmapping)


# read in shapefiles using 'sf'
my_map <- st_read("C:/Users/Yusuf_08039508010/Desktop/Working_Files/2021/08-August/R Poor and Vulnerable/SHP/NIG_ADM.shp")



# read in shapefiles using 'rgdal'
my_map <- readOGR("C:/Users/Yusuf_08039508010/Desktop/Working_Files/2021/08-August/R Poor and Vulnerable/SHP", "NIG_ADM")



# read in shapefiles using 'maptools'
# my_map1 <- readShapePoints("...")
# my_map2 <- readShapeLines("...")
my_map3 <- readShapePoly("C:/Users/Yusuf_08039508010/Desktop/Working_Files/2021/08-August/R Poor and Vulnerable/SHP/NIG_ADM")



# read in shapefiles using 'PBSmapping'
my_map <- importShapefile("C:/Users/Yusuf_08039508010/Desktop/Working_Files/2021/08-August/R Poor and Vulnerable/SHP/NIG_ADM")

Note that using maptools is deprecated and you will get a warning message that reads: readShapePoly is deprecated; use rgdal::readOGR or sf::st_read 

For more, read the web archive on Read and write ESRI Shapefiles with R.

Manipulating spatial data using the SF package

By far, the sf package is commonly used for reading and manipulating shapefiles and other spatial file types such as geojson, geopackage etc. Lets see more on the library(sf)

The package sf tries to fill this gap, and aims at succeeding sp in the long term. Which means sf was developed base on sp which is now deprecated.

In the code snippet below, you will see:-

1. Using the sf st_read() function to read different spatial files
2. Converting the sf object to old school sp object and vis-à-vis
3. Looking at common tidyverse functions that works on sf spatial objects

# Function to create spatial obj. with sp package: st_point(), st_linestring(), and st_polygon()
# However, the function "st_read()" is mostly used to read existing spatial objects

# Read shp...
myMap_1 <- st_read(dsn = "C:/Users/Yusuf_08039508010/Desktop/Working_Files/Fiverr/2021/010-October/NIG Grid/Oyo/NIG.shp")

# Read geoJSON file...
myMap_2 <- st_read("C:/Users/Yusuf_08039508010/Desktop/ng_State.geojson")

# Read GeoPackage (.gpkg) file...
myMap_3 <- st_read("C:/Users/Yusuf_08039508010/Desktop/Working_Files/GIS Data/NGR/GRID3 Data/GPKG files/Fire Stations/fire-stations (5).gpkg")



# What to use sp package...?
# Coverting form "sf data.frame" to sp package i.e: SpatialPointsDataFrame/SpatialLinesDataFrame/SpatialPolygonsDataFrame
class(myMap_1) # This returns sf df...
myMap_1_sp <- as(myMap_1, "Spatial")
class(myMap_1_sp)


# inspect the structure...
str(myMap_1_sp, max.level=2)

# We can see there are five slots, which can be accessed using @ symbol follow by the name
myMap_1_sp@data
myMap_1_sp@polygons
myMap_1_sp@plotOrder
myMap_1_sp@bbox
myMap_1_sp@proj4string

# To convert back to sf, use this function...
myMap_1 <- st_as_sf(myMap_1_sp)
class(myMap_1) # Now we have our sf df, which is the best for working in tydiverse universe.


# Now normal functions in tydiverse will work on the sf df apart from the core spatial functions such as: st_geometry_type(), st_dimension(), st_bbox() and st_crs().
# sf spatial functions....
st_geometry_type(myMap_1)
st_dimension(myMap_1)
st_bbox(myMap_1)
st_crs(myMap_1)

# tidyverse functions....
glimpse(myMap_1$state_name)
View(myMap_1)

That is it!

Generate Emails given owner and domain names

 This python script will generate four variant emails based on the company officers name and domain names.

If the officer name is "John Smith" and his company's domain name is "example.com", then the script is required to return four emails with the formats as follow:-

Email 1: john.smith@example.com

Email 2: jsmith@example.com

Email 3: info@example.com

Email 4: sales@example.com

I think the requirement is fairly clear and requires no further explanations.

import pandas as pd

df = pd.read_excel(r"C:\Users\Yusuf_08039508010\App_Data.xlsx")

df

Create function to perform the magics.

# Defining the email functions...

# Email 1 - john.smith@example.com
def email_1(name, website):
    return name.replace(' ', '.').lower() +"@"+ website.lower()


# Email 2 - jsmith@example.com
def email_2(name, website):
    return name.split(' ')[0][0].lower() + name.split(' ')[1].lower()+"@"+ website.lower()


# Email 3 - info@example.com
def email_3(website):
    return 'info' +"@"+ website.lower()


# Email 4 - sales@example.com
def email_4(website):
    return 'sales' +"@"+ website.lower()

Apply the functions to the columns.

# df['col_3'] = df.apply(lambda x: f(x.col_1, x.col_2), axis=1)
# df['col_3'] = df.apply(lambda x: f(x['col_1'], x['col_2']), axis=1)

df['Email 1'] = df.apply( lambda x : email_1(x['Company Staff Name'], x['Company Domain Name']), axis=1 )
df['Email 2'] = df.apply( lambda x : email_2(x['Company Staff Name'], x['Company Domain Name']), axis=1 )
df['Email 3'] = df.apply( lambda x : email_3(x['Company Domain Name']), axis=1 )
df['Email 4'] = df.apply( lambda x : email_4(x['Company Domain Name']), axis=1 )

df

That is it!

RegEx - I used recently

1) RegEx to Match string - starting with 2 or 3 numbers ending with character 'd'.

12d

123d

^[0-9]{2,3}+(d)

[] - Range

{} - Number Count

() - Group

2) Starts with 1, 2, 3 or 4 numbers followed by space and 'pts'

12  pts

234  pts

^[0-9]{1,4}+( pts)

3) Starts with 2 alphabetic characters followed by .

dr.

sd.

^[a-z]{2}+[.]

4) Starts with any of these strings

^(support|info|Hello|contact|inquiries|sales|orders|Customerservice)

5) Ends with any of these strings

(bad-elf.com|balancedbites.com|bellamihair.com|bellybandit.com|betseyjohnson.com|betterwayhealth.com|blenderseyewear.com|capbeauty.com|child1st.com|chilitechnology.com|concealmentexpress.com|ctl.net|kognito.com|koparibeauty.com|nrsworld.com|nzxt.com|olloclip.com)$

6) Regex to select every thing between ( and '

\(.*'


------------------ SAMPLE STRING -----------------------
('Download Paper', '
('Download Past Paper', '
('Download Mark Scheme', '
('Download Marking Scheme', '
('Download Insert', '
('Download Booklet', '
('Download Mark Schemes', '
('Download Marking Scheme for all Papers', '
('Download Periodic table', '
('Download Insert ', '
('Download Instructions', '
('Download Paper ', '
('Download Paper\xa0', '
('Download All Foundation Mark Schemes', '
('Dowload Mark Scheme', '
('Dowload Paper', '", 
('Download All Foundation Mark Schemes', '
('Dowload Mark Scheme', '
('Dowload Paper', '
('here', '

7) Extract country name and phone code from a 'select' HTML tag

Example is: Afghanistan +93 and AF +93. The 'select' HTML tag is seen below:-

<span class="a-dropdown-container"><select name="countryCode" autocomplete="off" data-a-touch-header="Country/Region Code" id="auth-country-picker" tabindex="-1" class="a-native-dropdown">
<option data-calling-code="93" data-country-code="AF" value="AF" data-a-html-content="Afghanistan +93">
AF +93
</option>
<option data-calling-code="355" data-country-code="AL" value="AL" data-a-html-content="Albania +355">
AL +355
</option>
<option data-calling-code="213" data-country-code="DZ" value="DZ" data-a-html-content="Algeria +213">
DZ +213
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="AS" value="AS" data-a-html-content="American Samoa +1">
AS +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="376" data-country-code="AD" value="AD" data-a-html-content="Andorra +376">
AD +376
</option>
<option data-calling-code="244" data-country-code="AO" value="AO" data-a-html-content="Angola +244">
AO +244
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="AG" value="AG" data-a-html-content="Antigua &amp; Barbuda +1">
AG +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="54" data-country-code="AR" value="AR" data-a-html-content="Argentina +54">
AR +54
</option>
<option data-calling-code="374" data-country-code="AM" value="AM" data-a-html-content="Armenia +374">
AM +374
</option>
<option data-calling-code="297" data-country-code="AW" value="AW" data-a-html-content="Aruba +297">
AW +297
</option>
<option data-calling-code="61" data-country-code="AU" value="AU" data-a-html-content="Australia +61">
AU +61
</option>
<option data-calling-code="43" data-country-code="AT" value="AT" data-a-html-content="Austria +43">
AT +43
</option>
<option data-calling-code="994" data-country-code="AZ" value="AZ" data-a-html-content="Azerbaijan +994">
AZ +994
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="BS" value="BS" data-a-html-content="Bahamas +1">
BS +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="973" data-country-code="BH" value="BH" data-a-html-content="Bahrain +973">
BH +973
</option>
<option data-calling-code="880" data-country-code="BD" value="BD" data-a-html-content="Bangladesh +880">
BD +880
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="BB" value="BB" data-a-html-content="Barbados +1">
BB +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="375" data-country-code="BY" value="BY" data-a-html-content="Belarus +375">
BY +375
</option>
<option data-calling-code="32" data-country-code="BE" value="BE" data-a-html-content="Belgium +32">
BE +32
</option>
<option data-calling-code="501" data-country-code="BZ" value="BZ" data-a-html-content="Belize +501">
BZ +501
</option>
<option data-calling-code="229" data-country-code="BJ" value="BJ" data-a-html-content="Benin +229">
BJ +229
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="BM" value="BM" data-a-html-content="Bermuda +1">
BM +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="975" data-country-code="BT" value="BT" data-a-html-content="Bhutan +975">
BT +975
</option>
<option data-calling-code="591" data-country-code="BO" value="BO" data-a-html-content="Bolivia +591">
BO +591
</option>
<option data-calling-code="387" data-country-code="BA" value="BA" data-a-html-content="Bosnia &amp; Herzegovina +387">
BA +387
</option>
<option data-calling-code="267" data-country-code="BW" value="BW" data-a-html-content="Botswana +267">
BW +267
</option>
<option data-calling-code="55" data-country-code="BR" value="BR" data-a-html-content="Brazil +55">
BR +55
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="VG" value="VG" data-a-html-content="British Virgin Islands +1">
VG +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="673" data-country-code="BN" value="BN" data-a-html-content="Brunei +673">
BN +673
</option>
<option data-calling-code="359" data-country-code="BG" value="BG" data-a-html-content="Bulgaria +359">
BG +359
</option>
<option data-calling-code="226" data-country-code="BF" value="BF" data-a-html-content="Burkina Faso +226">
BF +226
</option>
<option data-calling-code="257" data-country-code="BI" value="BI" data-a-html-content="Burundi +257">
BI +257
</option>
<option data-calling-code="855" data-country-code="KH" value="KH" data-a-html-content="Cambodia +855">
KH +855
</option>
<option data-calling-code="237" data-country-code="CM" value="CM" data-a-html-content="Cameroon +237">
CM +237
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="CA" value="CA" data-a-html-content="Canada +1">
CA +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="238" data-country-code="CV" value="CV" data-a-html-content="Cape Verde +238">
CV +238
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="KY" value="KY" data-a-html-content="Cayman Islands +1">
KY +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="236" data-country-code="CF" value="CF" data-a-html-content="Central African Republic +236">
CF +236
</option>
<option data-calling-code="235" data-country-code="TD" value="TD" data-a-html-content="Chad +235">
TD +235
</option>
<option data-calling-code="56" data-country-code="CL" value="CL" data-a-html-content="Chile +56">
CL +56
</option>
<option data-calling-code="86" data-country-code="CN" value="CN" data-a-html-content="China +86">
CN +86
</option>
<option data-calling-code="57" data-country-code="CO" value="CO" data-a-html-content="Colombia +57">
CO +57
</option>
<option data-calling-code="269" data-country-code="KM" value="KM" data-a-html-content="Comoros +269">
KM +269
</option>
<option data-calling-code="242" data-country-code="CG" value="CG" data-a-html-content="Congo - Brazzaville +242">
CG +242
</option>
<option data-calling-code="243" data-country-code="CD" value="CD" data-a-html-content="Congo - Kinshasa +243">
CD +243
</option>
<option data-calling-code="682" data-country-code="CK" value="CK" data-a-html-content="Cook Islands +682">
CK +682
</option>
<option data-calling-code="506" data-country-code="CR" value="CR" data-a-html-content="Costa Rica +506">
CR +506
</option>
<option data-calling-code="385" data-country-code="HR" value="HR" data-a-html-content="Croatia +385">
HR +385
</option>
<option data-calling-code="53" data-country-code="CU" value="CU" data-a-html-content="Cuba +53">
CU +53
</option>
<option data-calling-code="357" data-country-code="CY" value="CY" data-a-html-content="Cyprus +357">
CY +357
</option>
<option data-calling-code="420" data-country-code="CZ" value="CZ" data-a-html-content="Czech Republic +420">
CZ +420
</option>
<option data-calling-code="225" data-country-code="CI" value="CI" data-a-html-content="C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire +225">
CI +225
</option>
<option data-calling-code="45" data-country-code="DK" value="DK" data-a-html-content="Denmark +45">
DK +45
</option>
<option data-calling-code="253" data-country-code="DJ" value="DJ" data-a-html-content="Djibouti +253">
DJ +253
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="DM" value="DM" data-a-html-content="Dominica +1">
DM +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="DO" value="DO" data-a-html-content="Dominican Republic +1">
DO +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="593" data-country-code="EC" value="EC" data-a-html-content="Ecuador +593">
EC +593
</option>
<option data-calling-code="20" data-country-code="EG" value="EG" data-a-html-content="Egypt +20">
EG +20
</option>
<option data-calling-code="503" data-country-code="SV" value="SV" data-a-html-content="El Salvador +503">
SV +503
</option>
<option data-calling-code="240" data-country-code="GQ" value="GQ" data-a-html-content="Equatorial Guinea +240">
GQ +240
</option>
<option data-calling-code="291" data-country-code="ER" value="ER" data-a-html-content="Eritrea +291">
ER +291
</option>
<option data-calling-code="372" data-country-code="EE" value="EE" data-a-html-content="Estonia +372">
EE +372
</option>
<option data-calling-code="251" data-country-code="ET" value="ET" data-a-html-content="Ethiopia +251">
ET +251
</option>
<option data-calling-code="500" data-country-code="FK" value="FK" data-a-html-content="Falkland Islands +500">
FK +500
</option>
<option data-calling-code="298" data-country-code="FO" value="FO" data-a-html-content="Faroe Islands +298">
FO +298
</option>
<option data-calling-code="679" data-country-code="FJ" value="FJ" data-a-html-content="Fiji +679">
FJ +679
</option>
<option data-calling-code="358" data-country-code="FI" value="FI" data-a-html-content="Finland +358">
FI +358
</option>
<option data-calling-code="33" data-country-code="FR" value="FR" data-a-html-content="France +33">
FR +33
</option>
<option data-calling-code="594" data-country-code="GF" value="GF" data-a-html-content="French Guiana +594">
GF +594
</option>
<option data-calling-code="689" data-country-code="PF" value="PF" data-a-html-content="French Polynesia +689">
PF +689
</option>
<option data-calling-code="241" data-country-code="GA" value="GA" data-a-html-content="Gabon +241">
GA +241
</option>
<option data-calling-code="220" data-country-code="GM" value="GM" data-a-html-content="Gambia +220">
GM +220
</option>
<option data-calling-code="995" data-country-code="GE" value="GE" data-a-html-content="Georgia +995">
GE +995
</option>
<option data-calling-code="49" data-country-code="DE" value="DE" data-a-html-content="Germany +49">
DE +49
</option>
<option data-calling-code="233" data-country-code="GH" value="GH" data-a-html-content="Ghana +233">
GH +233
</option>
<option data-calling-code="350" data-country-code="GI" value="GI" data-a-html-content="Gibraltar +350">
GI +350
</option>
<option data-calling-code="30" data-country-code="GR" value="GR" data-a-html-content="Greece +30">
GR +30
</option>
<option data-calling-code="299" data-country-code="GL" value="GL" data-a-html-content="Greenland +299">
GL +299
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="GD" value="GD" data-a-html-content="Grenada +1">
GD +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="590" data-country-code="GP" value="GP" data-a-html-content="Guadeloupe +590">
GP +590
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="GU" value="GU" data-a-html-content="Guam +1">
GU +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="502" data-country-code="GT" value="GT" data-a-html-content="Guatemala +502">
GT +502
</option>
<option data-calling-code="224" data-country-code="GN" value="GN" data-a-html-content="Guinea +224">
GN +224
</option>
<option data-calling-code="245" data-country-code="GW" value="GW" data-a-html-content="Guinea-Bissau +245">
GW +245
</option>
<option data-calling-code="592" data-country-code="GY" value="GY" data-a-html-content="Guyana +592">
GY +592
</option>
<option data-calling-code="509" data-country-code="HT" value="HT" data-a-html-content="Haiti +509">
HT +509
</option>
<option data-calling-code="504" data-country-code="HN" value="HN" data-a-html-content="Honduras +504">
HN +504
</option>
<option data-calling-code="852" data-country-code="HK" value="HK" data-a-html-content="Hong Kong +852">
HK +852
</option>
<option data-calling-code="36" data-country-code="HU" value="HU" data-a-html-content="Hungary +36">
HU +36
</option>
<option data-calling-code="354" data-country-code="IS" value="IS" data-a-html-content="Iceland +354">
IS +354
</option>
<option data-calling-code="91" data-country-code="IN" value="IN" data-a-html-content="India +91">
IN +91
</option>
<option data-calling-code="62" data-country-code="ID" value="ID" data-a-html-content="Indonesia +62">
ID +62
</option>
<option data-calling-code="98" data-country-code="IR" value="IR" data-a-html-content="Iran +98">
IR +98
</option>
<option data-calling-code="964" data-country-code="IQ" value="IQ" data-a-html-content="Iraq +964">
IQ +964
</option>
<option data-calling-code="353" data-country-code="IE" value="IE" data-a-html-content="Ireland +353">
IE +353
</option>
<option data-calling-code="972" data-country-code="IL" value="IL" data-a-html-content="Israel +972">
IL +972
</option>
<option data-calling-code="39" data-country-code="IT" value="IT" data-a-html-content="Italy +39">
IT +39
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="JM" value="JM" data-a-html-content="Jamaica +1">
JM +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="81" data-country-code="JP" value="JP" data-a-html-content="Japan +81">
JP +81
</option>
<option data-calling-code="962" data-country-code="JO" value="JO" data-a-html-content="Jordan +962">
JO +962
</option>
<option data-calling-code="7" data-country-code="KZ" value="KZ" data-a-html-content="Kazakhstan +7">
KZ +7
</option>
<option data-calling-code="254" data-country-code="KE" value="KE" data-a-html-content="Kenya +254">
KE +254
</option>
<option data-calling-code="686" data-country-code="KI" value="KI" data-a-html-content="Kiribati +686">
KI +686
</option>
<option data-calling-code="965" data-country-code="KW" value="KW" data-a-html-content="Kuwait +965">
KW +965
</option>
<option data-calling-code="996" data-country-code="KG" value="KG" data-a-html-content="Kyrgyzstan +996">
KG +996
</option>
<option data-calling-code="856" data-country-code="LA" value="LA" data-a-html-content="Laos +856">
LA +856
</option>
<option data-calling-code="371" data-country-code="LV" value="LV" data-a-html-content="Latvia +371">
LV +371
</option>
<option data-calling-code="961" data-country-code="LB" value="LB" data-a-html-content="Lebanon +961">
LB +961
</option>
<option data-calling-code="266" data-country-code="LS" value="LS" data-a-html-content="Lesotho +266">
LS +266
</option>
<option data-calling-code="231" data-country-code="LR" value="LR" data-a-html-content="Liberia +231">
LR +231
</option>
<option data-calling-code="218" data-country-code="LY" value="LY" data-a-html-content="Libya +218">
LY +218
</option>
<option data-calling-code="423" data-country-code="LI" value="LI" data-a-html-content="Liechtenstein +423">
LI +423
</option>
<option data-calling-code="370" data-country-code="LT" value="LT" data-a-html-content="Lithuania +370">
LT +370
</option>
<option data-calling-code="352" data-country-code="LU" value="LU" data-a-html-content="Luxembourg +352">
LU +352
</option>
<option data-calling-code="853" data-country-code="MO" value="MO" data-a-html-content="Macau +853">
MO +853
</option>
<option data-calling-code="389" data-country-code="MK" value="MK" data-a-html-content="Macedonia +389">
MK +389
</option>
<option data-calling-code="261" data-country-code="MG" value="MG" data-a-html-content="Madagascar +261">
MG +261
</option>
<option data-calling-code="265" data-country-code="MW" value="MW" data-a-html-content="Malawi +265">
MW +265
</option>
<option data-calling-code="60" data-country-code="MY" value="MY" data-a-html-content="Malaysia +60">
MY +60
</option>
<option data-calling-code="960" data-country-code="MV" value="MV" data-a-html-content="Maldives +960">
MV +960
</option>
<option data-calling-code="223" data-country-code="ML" value="ML" data-a-html-content="Mali +223">
ML +223
</option>
<option data-calling-code="356" data-country-code="MT" value="MT" data-a-html-content="Malta +356">
MT +356
</option>
<option data-calling-code="692" data-country-code="MH" value="MH" data-a-html-content="Marshall Islands +692">
MH +692
</option>
<option data-calling-code="596" data-country-code="MQ" value="MQ" data-a-html-content="Martinique +596">
MQ +596
</option>
<option data-calling-code="222" data-country-code="MR" value="MR" data-a-html-content="Mauritania +222">
MR +222
</option>
<option data-calling-code="230" data-country-code="MU" value="MU" data-a-html-content="Mauritius +230">
MU +230
</option>
<option data-calling-code="52" data-country-code="MX" value="MX" data-a-html-content="Mexico +52">
MX +52
</option>
<option data-calling-code="691" data-country-code="FM" value="FM" data-a-html-content="Micronesia +691">
FM +691
</option>
<option data-calling-code="373" data-country-code="MD" value="MD" data-a-html-content="Moldova +373">
MD +373
</option>
<option data-calling-code="377" data-country-code="MC" value="MC" data-a-html-content="Monaco +377">
MC +377
</option>
<option data-calling-code="976" data-country-code="MN" value="MN" data-a-html-content="Mongolia +976">
MN +976
</option>
<option data-calling-code="382" data-country-code="ME" value="ME" data-a-html-content="Montenegro +382">
ME +382
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="MS" value="MS" data-a-html-content="Montserrat +1">
MS +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="212" data-country-code="MA" value="MA" data-a-html-content="Morocco +212">
MA +212
</option>
<option data-calling-code="258" data-country-code="MZ" value="MZ" data-a-html-content="Mozambique +258">
MZ +258
</option>
<option data-calling-code="95" data-country-code="MM" value="MM" data-a-html-content="Myanmar (Burma) +95">
MM +95
</option>
<option data-calling-code="264" data-country-code="NA" value="NA" data-a-html-content="Namibia +264">
NA +264
</option>
<option data-calling-code="674" data-country-code="NR" value="NR" data-a-html-content="Nauru +674">
NR +674
</option>
<option data-calling-code="977" data-country-code="NP" value="NP" data-a-html-content="Nepal +977">
NP +977
</option>
<option data-calling-code="31" data-country-code="NL" value="NL" data-a-html-content="Netherlands +31">
NL +31
</option>
<option data-calling-code="687" data-country-code="NC" value="NC" data-a-html-content="New Caledonia +687">
NC +687
</option>
<option data-calling-code="64" data-country-code="NZ" value="NZ" data-a-html-content="New Zealand +64">
NZ +64
</option>
<option data-calling-code="505" data-country-code="NI" value="NI" data-a-html-content="Nicaragua +505">
NI +505
</option>
<option data-calling-code="227" data-country-code="NE" value="NE" data-a-html-content="Niger +227">
NE +227
</option>
<option data-calling-code="234" data-country-code="NG" value="NG" data-a-html-content="Nigeria +234">
NG +234
</option>
<option data-calling-code="683" data-country-code="NU" value="NU" data-a-html-content="Niue +683">
NU +683
</option>
<option data-calling-code="672" data-country-code="NF" value="NF" data-a-html-content="Norfolk Island +672">
NF +672
</option>
<option data-calling-code="850" data-country-code="KP" value="KP" data-a-html-content="North Korea +850">
KP +850
</option>
<option data-calling-code="47" data-country-code="NO" value="NO" data-a-html-content="Norway +47">
NO +47
</option>
<option data-calling-code="968" data-country-code="OM" value="OM" data-a-html-content="Oman +968">
OM +968
</option>
<option data-calling-code="92" data-country-code="PK" value="PK" data-a-html-content="Pakistan +92">
PK +92
</option>
<option data-calling-code="680" data-country-code="PW" value="PW" data-a-html-content="Palau +680">
PW +680
</option>
<option data-calling-code="970" data-country-code="PS" value="PS" data-a-html-content="Palestinian Territories +970">
PS +970
</option>
<option data-calling-code="507" data-country-code="PA" value="PA" data-a-html-content="Panama +507">
PA +507
</option>
<option data-calling-code="675" data-country-code="PG" value="PG" data-a-html-content="Papua New Guinea +675">
PG +675
</option>
<option data-calling-code="595" data-country-code="PY" value="PY" data-a-html-content="Paraguay +595">
PY +595
</option>
<option data-calling-code="51" data-country-code="PE" value="PE" data-a-html-content="Peru +51">
PE +51
</option>
<option data-calling-code="63" data-country-code="PH" value="PH" data-a-html-content="Philippines +63">
PH +63
</option>
<option data-calling-code="48" data-country-code="PL" value="PL" data-a-html-content="Poland +48">
PL +48
</option>
<option data-calling-code="351" data-country-code="PT" value="PT" data-a-html-content="Portugal +351">
PT +351
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="PR" value="PR" data-a-html-content="Puerto Rico +1">
PR +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="974" data-country-code="QA" value="QA" data-a-html-content="Qatar +974">
QA +974
</option>
<option data-calling-code="40" data-country-code="RO" value="RO" data-a-html-content="Romania +40">
RO +40
</option>
<option data-calling-code="7" data-country-code="RU" value="RU" data-a-html-content="Russia +7">
RU +7
</option>
<option data-calling-code="250" data-country-code="RW" value="RW" data-a-html-content="Rwanda +250">
RW +250
</option>
<option data-calling-code="262" data-country-code="RE" value="RE" data-a-html-content="R&eacute;union +262">
RE +262
</option>
<option data-calling-code="685" data-country-code="WS" value="WS" data-a-html-content="Samoa +685">
WS +685
</option>
<option data-calling-code="378" data-country-code="SM" value="SM" data-a-html-content="San Marino +378">
SM +378
</option>
<option data-calling-code="966" data-country-code="SA" value="SA" data-a-html-content="Saudi Arabia +966">
SA +966
</option>
<option data-calling-code="221" data-country-code="SN" value="SN" data-a-html-content="Senegal +221">
SN +221
</option>
<option data-calling-code="381" data-country-code="RS" value="RS" data-a-html-content="Serbia +381">
RS +381
</option>
<option data-calling-code="248" data-country-code="SC" value="SC" data-a-html-content="Seychelles +248">
SC +248
</option>
<option data-calling-code="232" data-country-code="SL" value="SL" data-a-html-content="Sierra Leone +232">
SL +232
</option>
<option data-calling-code="65" data-country-code="SG" value="SG" data-a-html-content="Singapore +65">
SG +65
</option>
<option data-calling-code="421" data-country-code="SK" value="SK" data-a-html-content="Slovakia +421">
SK +421
</option>
<option data-calling-code="386" data-country-code="SI" value="SI" data-a-html-content="Slovenia +386">
SI +386
</option>
<option data-calling-code="677" data-country-code="SB" value="SB" data-a-html-content="Solomon Islands +677">
SB +677
</option>
<option data-calling-code="252" data-country-code="SO" value="SO" data-a-html-content="Somalia +252">
SO +252
</option>
<option data-calling-code="27" data-country-code="ZA" value="ZA" data-a-html-content="South Africa +27">
ZA +27
</option>
<option data-calling-code="82" data-country-code="KR" value="KR" data-a-html-content="South Korea +82">
KR +82
</option>
<option data-calling-code="211" data-country-code="SS" value="SS" data-a-html-content="South Sudan +211">
SS +211
</option>
<option data-calling-code="34" data-country-code="ES" value="ES" data-a-html-content="Spain +34">
ES +34
</option>
<option data-calling-code="94" data-country-code="LK" value="LK" data-a-html-content="Sri Lanka +94">
LK +94
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="KN" value="KN" data-a-html-content="St. Kitts &amp; Nevis +1">
KN +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="LC" value="LC" data-a-html-content="St. Lucia +1">
LC +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="508" data-country-code="PM" value="PM" data-a-html-content="St. Pierre &amp; Miquelon +508">
PM +508
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="VC" value="VC" data-a-html-content="St. Vincent &amp; Grenadines +1">
VC +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="249" data-country-code="SD" value="SD" data-a-html-content="Sudan +249">
SD +249
</option>
<option data-calling-code="597" data-country-code="SR" value="SR" data-a-html-content="Suriname +597">
SR +597
</option>
<option data-calling-code="268" data-country-code="SZ" value="SZ" data-a-html-content="Swaziland +268">
SZ +268
</option>
<option data-calling-code="46" data-country-code="SE" value="SE" data-a-html-content="Sweden +46">
SE +46
</option>
<option data-calling-code="41" data-country-code="CH" value="CH" data-a-html-content="Switzerland +41">
CH +41
</option>
<option data-calling-code="963" data-country-code="SY" value="SY" data-a-html-content="Syria +963">
SY +963
</option>
<option data-calling-code="239" data-country-code="ST" value="ST" data-a-html-content="S&atilde;o Tom&eacute; &amp; Pr&iacute;ncipe +239">
ST +239
</option>
<option data-calling-code="886" data-country-code="TW" value="TW" data-a-html-content="Taiwan +886">
TW +886
</option>
<option data-calling-code="992" data-country-code="TJ" value="TJ" data-a-html-content="Tajikistan +992">
TJ +992
</option>
<option data-calling-code="255" data-country-code="TZ" value="TZ" data-a-html-content="Tanzania +255">
TZ +255
</option>
<option data-calling-code="66" data-country-code="TH" value="TH" data-a-html-content="Thailand +66">
TH +66
</option>
<option data-calling-code="670" data-country-code="TL" value="TL" data-a-html-content="Timor-Leste +670">
TL +670
</option>
<option data-calling-code="228" data-country-code="TG" value="TG" data-a-html-content="Togo +228">
TG +228
</option>
<option data-calling-code="676" data-country-code="TO" value="TO" data-a-html-content="Tonga +676">
TO +676
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="TT" value="TT" data-a-html-content="Trinidad &amp; Tobago +1">
TT +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="216" data-country-code="TN" value="TN" data-a-html-content="Tunisia +216">
TN +216
</option>
<option data-calling-code="90" data-country-code="TR" value="TR" data-a-html-content="Turkey +90">
TR +90
</option>
<option data-calling-code="993" data-country-code="TM" value="TM" data-a-html-content="Turkmenistan +993">
TM +993
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="TC" value="TC" data-a-html-content="Turks &amp; Caicos Islands +1">
TC +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="688" data-country-code="TV" value="TV" data-a-html-content="Tuvalu +688">
TV +688
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="VI" value="VI" data-a-html-content="U.S. Virgin Islands +1">
VI +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="256" data-country-code="UG" value="UG" data-a-html-content="Uganda +256">
UG +256
</option>
<option data-calling-code="380" data-country-code="UA" value="UA" data-a-html-content="Ukraine +380">
UA +380
</option>
<option data-calling-code="971" data-country-code="AE" value="AE" data-a-html-content="United Arab Emirates +971">
AE +971
</option>
<option data-calling-code="44" data-country-code="GB" value="GB" data-a-html-content="United Kingdom +44">
GB +44
</option>
<option data-calling-code="1" data-country-code="US" value="US" data-a-html-content="United States +1" selected>
US +1
</option>
<option data-calling-code="598" data-country-code="UY" value="UY" data-a-html-content="Uruguay +598">
UY +598
</option>
<option data-calling-code="998" data-country-code="UZ" value="UZ" data-a-html-content="Uzbekistan +998">
UZ +998
</option>
<option data-calling-code="678" data-country-code="VU" value="VU" data-a-html-content="Vanuatu +678">
VU +678
</option>
<option data-calling-code="58" data-country-code="VE" value="VE" data-a-html-content="Venezuela +58">
VE +58
</option>
<option data-calling-code="84" data-country-code="VN" value="VN" data-a-html-content="Vietnam +84">
VN +84
</option>
<option data-calling-code="967" data-country-code="YE" value="YE" data-a-html-content="Yemen +967">
YE +967
</option>
<option data-calling-code="260" data-country-code="ZM" value="ZM" data-a-html-content="Zambia +260">
ZM +260
</option>
<option data-calling-code="263" data-country-code="ZW" value="ZW" data-a-html-content="Zimbabwe +263">
ZW +263
</option>
<option data-calling-code="358" data-country-code="AX" value="AX" data-a-html-content="&Aring;land Islands +358">
AX +358
</option>
</select><span tabindex="-1" class="a-button a-button-dropdown"><span class="a-button-inner"><span class="a-button-text a-declarative" data-action="a-dropdown-button" role="button" tabindex="0" aria-hidden="true"><span class="a-dropdown-prompt">US +1</span></span><i class="a-icon a-icon-dropdown"></i></span></span></span>

Grab text, space, + and number between double quotes: "[A-Z a-z]+ \+[0-9]{1,3}"

The expression above only matches 204 records but I was expecting 222 records. The expression that worked was to select everything from content= to the end: content=".*

The from there we can filter out unwanted parts.

To select country code and phone code the expression is: ^[A-Z]* \+[0-9]+

Have a nice day.

Nairaland website Data Scraper

₦airaLand.com Data Scraper Bot

In this information age, the need and importance of extracting data from the web is becoming increasingly obvious.

Over the years attempts has been made to duplicate nairaland website structure by developers using different programming languages such PHP, Python, .NET, Perl, Ruby, C#, Java etc. But unfortunately little or no attempt has been made to scrape or extract useful data from the forum for legitimate purpose.

If you know nairaland.com, then I don't need to tell you that it is the equivalent of Facebook or Twitter for Nigerians that houses abundant information related to Nigeria and environs. So, as a data person, you know what that means!

If you want to measure the opinion of Nigerians online, don't use data from sources like facebook or twitter, instead use the data from Nairaland. As a the moment, nairaland.com has about 1.5 million active user accounts (90% of them are Nigerians residing in the country) and more than 3 million topics on different subjects has been created.

The problem now is, how to extract these data legally and freely without breaking the site and you pocket.

Off course, you can always copy, paste and edit contents from any section of the forum. But in situations were you have to do this repeatedly, then you need a way to automate the process to ease your task.

Imagine if you have to copy the title of the topics that made front page everyday, you will select all the content and copy paste in a text editor to edit into a friendly format. That is how you will do it every single day! Won't it be nice if you have a script/program that does that for you with just a mouse click?


Legal Warning before Scraping a website

There are a few points that we need to go over before we start scraping.

~ Always check the website’s terms and conditions before you scrape them. They usually have terms that limit how often you can scrape or what you can you scrape
~ Because your script will run much faster than a human can browse, make sure you don’t hammer their website with lots of requests. This may even be covered in the terms and conditions of the website.
~ You can get into legal trouble if you overload a website with your requests or you attempt to use it in a way that violates the terms and conditions you agreed to.
~ Websites change all the time, so your scraper will break some day. Know this: You will have to maintain your scraper if you want it to keep working.
~ Unfortunately the data you get from websites can be a mess. As with any data parsing activity, you will need to clean it up to make it useful to you.

With that out of the way, let’s start scraping!

Lets get started scraping data from nairaland.

Here I present to you a solution that allows you scrape or extract the following datasets from Nairaland:-

1) Front Page Topics

2) Members and Guests Online

3) Section Topics and poster usernames

4) First Post content (Original Post) from thread

5) Images from thread

6) Email Addresses from thread

How to use the data

What can the scraped data be used for?
Data from Nairaland can be used for Data Science, Machine Learning, Computer Vision etc as follows:-

~ Text mining
~ Sentiment Analysis
~ Natural Language Processing
~ Polls and Opinions Study
~ Trends Analysis
~ Market Research
~ Automatic summarization
~ Machine translation
~ Named entity recognition
~ Relationship extraction
~ Sentiment analysis
~ Speech recognition
~ Words embedding
~ Topic segmentation
~ etc.

Understand Nairaland Structure

The structure of the website has pretty much remained the same for some years now. See the look of the forum in 2005, 2011, 2014, and 2017.

Year 2005

Year 2011

Year 2014

Year 2017

This means a web crawler script written for nairaland will remain functional for a long time, until the structure is changed.

Also, the HTML structure uses a lot of tables. Most of the data we will be scrapping are nested in html table structures.