Collecting your own data
You will not always be able to find the exact dataset you require nicely collected and cleaned for you with a little bow on top. Often, if you need specific data, you will need to go out and get it yourself. This can be easier said than done. However, there are several different ways for you to collect your own data. We will go over a few of the most common approaches you will need to know.
Web scraping
As the name implies, web scraping is the process of collecting data from the web. While it uses the web, this approach is different from public databases, open sources, or APIs because there is no database. Web scraping is the process of collecting information directly from a web page instead of a database. This can include collecting price information on a product from several different sites, collecting posted stock information, or filtering through social media posts with specific tags. Anything that is posted on a website can be accessed and saved...
