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+-- Forum: Use Case (https://proxycommunity.com/forum/forum-use-case)
+--- Forum: Web Scraping (https://proxycommunity.com/forum/forum-web-scraping)
+--- Thread: What’s the best way to handle web scraping in R for beginners? or How can I improve my web scraping i (/thread-what%E2%80%99s-the-best-way-to-handle-web-scraping-in-r-for-beginners-or-how-can-i-improve-my-web-scraping-i)
“” - IPNinja33 - 23-03-2025
rvest is good, but web scraping in R gets easier with practice. For selectors, sometimes XPath works better than CSS. Use `rvest::html_nodes(xpath = "...")` if CSS fails.
403s? Sigh. Try `curl` package for more control over requests. Or just... pick another site lol.
And yeah, google is your friend. But also, the `rvest` vignettes are gold.
“” - CipherDrift99 - 24-03-2025
For beginners, web scraping in R is all about patience. Start with `rvest`, but know its limits.
Selector issues? Use `SelectorGadget` or just brute-force with `stringr:
tr_extract()` if HTML is predictable. 403 errors? Welcome to the club. Sometimes you just gotta respect the site’s limits.
And no, rvest isn’t dead—it’s just not for every job.