Is requests in Python standard library?
As a Python developer, you might have come across the term 'requests' while working on web development projects. In simple words, the requests library in Python is used to send HTTP/1.1 requests using Python. It is an essential tool for web development, and developers use it to communicate with web-based APIs.
The Answer
No, requests is not a standard library in Python. In fact, it is a third-party library that developers need to install and import explicitly into their Python environment.
The Python standard library has several modules for working with HTTP requests, such as urllib, httplib, and httplib2. However, each of these modules has its own limitations and complexities that make working with them tedious. This is where the requests library comes in handy as it simplifies the process of making HTTP requests and handling responses.
How to Install Requests?
To install the requests library in Python, you can use pip, which is a package manager for Python:
pip install requests
Once installed, you can import the requests module into your code and start using its functions:
import requests
Alternative Libraries
While requests is a popular choice for working with web-based APIs, there are other libraries that developers can consider:
- httplib2: A comprehensive HTTP client library that supports many advanced features such as caching and authentication.
- urllib3: A powerful HTTP client library that provides thread-safe connection pooling, file uploading, and more.
- RoboBrowser: A library that combines the power of requests with the simplicity of Beautiful Soup to create a high-level interface for web scraping.
Each of these libraries has its own strengths and weaknesses, and developers should choose the one that best fits their needs.
Conclusion
Requests is not a standard library in Python, but it is a popular third-party library that simplifies making HTTP/1.1 requests. To use it, developers need to install it using pip and import it into their Python environment. There are also alternative libraries available that developers can consider for their web development projects.