Python Requests Post vs Get
As a developer, one of the most important aspects of programming is sending and receiving data from servers. In Python, we use the Requests library to make HTTP requests to servers. There are two main HTTP request methods - POST and GET. While both methods are used to send data to a server, they are used in different scenarios.
GET Method
The GET method is used to retrieve data from a server. When you use a web browser to visit a website, you are actually sending a GET request to the server. The data that is sent with a GET request is sent through the URL in the form of query parameters. This means that the data is visible in the URL and can be bookmarked or shared with others.
POST Method
The POST method is used to send data to a server for processing. Unlike the GET method, the data sent with a POST request is not visible in the URL. Instead, it is sent in the request body. This means that the data is not bookmarkable or shareable, and it is also more secure than the GET method since the data is not visible to others.
Using Requests to Make GET and POST Requests
Now that we know the difference between GET and POST requests, let's see how we can use the Requests library in Python to make these requests.
GET Request Example:
import requests
response = requests.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1')
print(response.json())
In this example, we are making a GET request to the JSONPlaceholder API to retrieve a specific post. We then print out the JSON response using the .json() method.
POST Request Example:
import requests
url = 'https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts'
data = {'title': 'foo', 'body': 'bar', 'userId': 1}
response = requests.post(url, json=data)
print(response.json())
In this example, we are making a POST request to the JSONPlaceholder API to create a new post. We pass the data we want to send in the json parameter of the post() method. We then print out the JSON response using the .json() method.
Overall, understanding the difference between GET and POST requests is important for developing web applications. The Requests library in Python makes it easy to send both types of requests and process the responses.
