Connecting to, and pulling data from, databases

For data analytics and data preprocessing, we need to have the skillset to connect to databases and pull the data we want from them. There are a few ways you can go about this. In this section, we will cover these ways, share their advantages and disadvantages, and, with the help of examples, we will see how this is done.

We will cover five methods of connecting to a database: direct connection, web page connection, API connection, request connection, and publicly shared.

Direct connection

When you are allowed access to a database directly, it means you can pull any data you want from the database. This is a great method of pulling data from databases, but there are two major disadvantages. First, you are rarely given direct access to databases unless you are completely trusted by the owner of the database. Second, you need to have the skillset to interact with a database to pull the data from it. The script you need to know...