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Munging and Scraping

This basic tutorial covers using Python's pandas library to clean and filter data, along with basic web scraping, and explains a little bit about Python syntax along the way. It was first given to a group of GIS analysts: It's aimed at people who know plenty about data, but assumes no knowledge of how to code.

Easy steps to getting ready

  1. To quickly get all the modules you'll need, download and install Anaconda. The second tutorial will also reference some tools in the Chrome developer console.
  2. Open a terminal, navigate to repo folder, and enter ipython notebook.
  3. Start with the first example. Firsttimers, note that you'll generally have to run the code snippets in order. Do this for each by clicking the code block, and then clicking the play button.

The first example aimed to give participants a chance to code with an experienced tutor present. One version leaves some coding to the participant, and another has all the answers coded. The second example is a walk-through of how to build a basic scraper—more discussion, less to code.