Web-based APIs allow users to interact with information on the web. API deals directly with data that's in a formatted pattern easy to use and maintain. Some APIs also require user authentication before they can provide data to the user. This chapter will cover the use of Python and some web APIs to interact with, and extract data from, the available API. Generally, APIs provide data in an exchangeable document format, such as JSON, CSV, and XML.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Introduction to web APIs
• Accessing web APIs using the Python programming language
• Processing and extracting data via web APIs