Working with Python’s urllib Library: A Beginner’s Guide

Learn how to make HTTP requests, read server responses, and handle errors using Python’s urllib library.

Introduction

Python’s urllib library is a powerful, built-in tool for working with URLs and making HTTP requests. In this tutorial, we'll explore the basics of the urllib library, focusing on the urllib.request module, which allows you to make GET and POST requests, read server responses, and handle errors.

Importing the urllib.request module

Before you can use urllib.request, you need to import it into your Python script:

import urllib.request

Making a simple GET request

To make a GET request, use the urlopen function from the urllib.request module:

url = 'https://example.com'
response = urllib.request.urlopen(url)

The urlopen function returns an HTTPResponse object containing the server's response.

Reading the response content

After receiving the server’s response, you can read its content using the read method:

content = response.read()