Data Extraction
The process of pulling specific information from a source, such as a web page, and turning it into structured, usable data — the core goal of web scraping.
Full Definition
Data extraction is the first step in any data pipeline: locating and pulling specific fields of information from an unstructured or semi-structured source. On the web, this means parsing HTML documents using CSS selectors or XPath expressions to find product prices, article text, contact details, or any other target data, then storing it in a clean format like JSON or CSV. The challenge is that websites change their structure frequently, requiring selectors to be maintained over time. Modern extraction tools increasingly use AI to locate fields semantically rather than by brittle CSS paths.
