Parsel: How to Extract Text From HTML in Python Last Updated : 01 Jul, 2024 Comments Improve Suggest changes Like Article Like Report Parsel is a Python library used for extracting data from HTML and XML documents. It provides tools for parsing, navigating, and extracting information using CSS selectors and XPath expressions. Parsel is particularly useful for web scraping tasks where you need to programmatically extract specific data from web pages.Key Features of ParselCSS Selectors and XPath Support: Parsel allows you to use both CSS selectors and XPath expressions to locate and extract elements from HTML and XML documents.Integration with Scrapy: Parsel is often used in conjunction with the Scrapy web scraping framework, but it can also be used independently.Ease of Use: Parsel provides a simple and intuitive API for selecting and extracting data from web pages.Extract Text From HTML in PythonInstallationYou can install Parsel using pip:pip install parselExample HTML content Python from parsel import Selector # Example HTML content html_content = """ <html> <head> <title>Example Title</title> </head> <body> <h1>Main Heading</h1> <p>This is a paragraph.</p> <div class="content"> <p>Another paragraph within a div.</p> <span>Some span text.</span> </div> </body> </html> """ Basic UsageHere’s a basic example of how to use Parsel to extract data from an HTML document: Python # Create a Selector object selector = Selector(text=html_content) # Extract data using CSS selectors title = selector.css('title::text').get() main_heading = selector.css('h1::text').get() paragraphs = selector.css('p::text').getall() div_content = selector.css('div.content').get() # Print extracted data print("Title:", title) print("Main Heading:", main_heading) print("Paragraphs:", paragraphs) print("Div Content:", div_content) OutputTitle: Example TitleMain Heading: Main HeadingParagraphs: ['This is a paragraph.', 'Another paragraph within a div.']Div Content: <div class="content"> <p>Another paragraph within a div.</p> <span>Some span text.</span> </div>Both BeautifulSoup and Parsel are popular Python libraries used for parsing HTML and XML documents, but they have different features and use cases. Here's a comparison of the two:Pros:XPath and CSS Selectors: Parsel provides robust support for both XPath and CSS selectors, making it very powerful for complex data extraction tasks.Performance: Parsel is generally faster than BeautifulSoup, especially when used with the lxml parser.Integration with Scrapy: Parsel is designed to work seamlessly with the Scrapy web scraping framework, making it an excellent choice for large-scale scraping projects.Cons:Learning Curve: Parsel can have a steeper learning curve compared to BeautifulSoup, particularly for those unfamiliar with XPath.Less Flexible Parsing: While Parsel is powerful, it might not handle malformed HTML as gracefully as BeautifulSoup. Comment More infoAdvertise with us Next Article Parsel: How to Extract Text From HTML in Python 05wa1u8inwlr5w4c2zndvla0oeuzu8ana44hph7b Follow Improve Article Tags : Python Web-scraping Practice Tags : python Similar Reads How to parse local HTML file in Python? 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