Formatting Output After Web Scraping

[yoitspython]

Hi (again, I'm redoing my previous post with more detail),

I am currently web scraping a site using START DATE 07/01/2019 and END DATE 07/05/2019. The URL is Lobbyist Registrations

I am web scraping the table on that site and trying to place that data in a newly created table using Python (of course). I have gotten the data but I'm faced with having to move that data into a table. I have tried to create a list or DataFrame for the data but have not gotten any success. Any help is appreciated!

So far, I have successfully web scraped the table using the following code:

import PipPackages
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup, SoupStrainer
import pandas as pd

website_url = requests.get('https://www8.miamidade.gov/Apps/COB/LobbyistOnline/Views/Queries/Registration_ByPeriod_List.aspx?startdate=07%2f01%2f2019&enddate=07%2f05%2f2019')
content = website_url.text

soup = BeautifulSoup(content,'lxml')
table = soup.find('table', attrs={'id': 'ctl00_mainContentPlaceHolder_gvLobbyistRegList'})


rows_in_table = []


for row in table.findAll('tr')[1:]:
    cell = row.findAll('td')
    if len(rows_in_table) == 0: # 0 == 0
        rows_in_table = [None for _ in cell]
    elif len(cell) != len(rows_in_table): # 4 != 5
        for index, rowspan in enumerate(rows_in_table):
            if rowspan is not None:
                value = rowspan["value"]
                cell.insert(index, value) # when, index = 0 & value = kesti michael 
                if rows_in_table[index]["rows_left"] == 1:
                    rows_in_table[index] = None
                else:
                    rows_in_table[index]["rows_left"] -= 1
    print(cell[0].string)
    #new_list = []
    #names_list = cell[0].string
    #li = list(names_list.split("-"))

    for index, x in enumerate(cell):
        if x.has_attr("rowspan"):
            rowspan = {"rows_left": int(x["rowspan"]), "value": x}
            rows_in_table[index] = rowspan

Output that results from the code above is the following: (of course, because the print statement is using cell[0].string as the argument)

Output:
Adams, Chris 
ALBANESE, MARC  
BAILEY, MARIO 
DIAZ DE LA PORTILLA, ESQ., MIGUEL 
GONZALEZ, JOSE M
JOHNSON, ERIN E
KESTI, MICHAEL 
KESTI, MICHAEL 
KRISCHER, ALAN 
KUIPER, KENNETH A
LASARTE, FELIX M
LERMA, LISA I
MANZANO, JESSE 
MARTINEZ DE CASTRO, ORLANDO 
OTAZO, JULIO O
PRAGER, RICHARD S
RIVET, JEFFREY J
RUIZ-DIAZ DE LA PORTILLA, ELINETTE 
TAYLOR, MICHAEL 
THOMSON, CHRISTIAN 
WELLS, GARY T
WOLF, JAMES M
ZELEDON, CLARIMAR 
      

Believe me, I have attempted to place the current output ^ into a list because I wanted to make a list to put in a dictionary like dictionary = {'Name':list, 'Date':date} but have failed as shown below: (Python code then output)

#print(cell[0].string)
new_list = []
names_list = cell[0].string
li = list(names_list.split("-"))
print(li + new_list) # attempt #1
#print(li.append(new_list)) #attempt #2
# I TRIED TO WORK WITH A DICTIONARY IN ONE ATTEMPT
#dictionary={'Names':names_list}
#df = pd.DataFrame(dictionary) #attempt #3
#print(df) # this prints 'Names' : ...names... in a long list

Based on my first attempt, I get this:

Output:
['Adams, Chris ']
['ALBANESE, MARC  ']
['BAILEY, MARIO ']
['DIAZ DE LA PORTILLA, ESQ., MIGUEL ']
['GONZALEZ, JOSE M']
['JOHNSON, ERIN E']
['KESTI, MICHAEL ']
['KESTI, MICHAEL ']
['KRISCHER, ALAN ']
['KUIPER, KENNETH A']
['LASARTE, FELIX M']
['LERMA, LISA I']
['MANZANO, JESSE ']
['MARTINEZ DE CASTRO, ORLANDO ']
['OTAZO, JULIO O']
['PRAGER, RICHARD S']
['RIVET, JEFFREY J']
['RUIZ', 'DIAZ DE LA PORTILLA, ELINETTE ']
['TAYLOR, MICHAEL ']
['THOMSON, CHRISTIAN ']
['WELLS, GARY T']
['WOLF, JAMES M']
['ZELEDON, CLARIMAR ']
['\xa0']

Can someone help me out with how I should implement the code to get the output properly formatted to a table, such as DataFrame? Any sort or method to achieve would be great ! Thank you so much for the help ! thnxx

[snippsat]

Can someone help me out with how I should implement the code to get the output properly formatted to a table, such as DataFrame?

You can drop all this and let pandas do the job if want a table as DataFrame.

import pandas as pd
 
df = pd.read_html("https://www8.miamidade.gov/Apps/COB/LobbyistOnline/Views/Queries/Registration_ByPeriod_List.aspx?startdate=07%2f01%2f2019&enddate=07%2f05%2f2019")
df = df[3]
df

Look at pandas library tricks.
First step is clean up, df.dtypes.

Lobbyist Name        object
Principal            object
Employed On          object
Issue Description    object
Issue Status         object
dtype: object

Eg Employed On should be date time object ect...

[yoitspython]

ohh myy, whhhhaaat just happened? Thank you so much! Pandas is amazing.. I honestly am new to using pandas and didn't know it could do this ..wow..

but, How did you get that table to display so well? I used the code you provided and got the following with three dots (...):

Output:
                         Lobbyist Name  ... Issue Status
0                         Adams, Chris  ...       Active
1                       ALBANESE, MARC  ...       Active
2                        BAILEY, MARIO  ...       Active
3    DIAZ DE LA PORTILLA, ESQ., MIGUEL  ...       Active
4                     GONZALEZ, JOSE M  ...       Active
5                      JOHNSON, ERIN E  ...       Active
6                       KESTI, MICHAEL  ...       Active
7                       KESTI, MICHAEL  ...       Active
8                       KRISCHER, ALAN  ...       Active
9                    KUIPER, KENNETH A  ...       Active
10                    LASARTE, FELIX M  ...       Active
11                       LERMA, LISA I  ...       Active
12                      MANZANO, JESSE  ...       Active
13         MARTINEZ DE CASTRO, ORLANDO  ...       Active
14                      OTAZO, JULIO O  ...       Active
15                   PRAGER, RICHARD S  ...       Active
16                    RIVET, JEFFREY J  ...       Active
17  RUIZ-DIAZ DE LA PORTILLA, ELINETTE  ...       Active
18                     TAYLOR, MICHAEL  ...       Active
19                  THOMSON, CHRISTIAN  ...       Active
20                       WELLS, GARY T  ...       Active
21                       WOLF, JAMES M  ...       Active
22                   ZELEDON, CLARIMAR  ...       Active
23                                 NaN  ...          NaN

[24 rows x 5 columns]

I'm using IDLE on my end. Usually, if I were to display something using another lib/package it would open a blank window with the graph/table. thanks, again for the help

[snippsat]

but, How did you get that table to display so well?

Use JupyterLab NoteBook to get that display,it's easier to work with in a Notebook as get better display of table and easier to test stuff out.

I used the code you provided and got the following with three dots (...):

This can vary on Editor/IDE used(IDLE is not good in any case).
To show all look at Options and settings.

import pandas as pd

pd.options.display.max_rows = 999