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python requests with headers

Narkw Brahma

Narkw Brahma

• 2 min read

Python Requests with Headers

If you are working on a Python project that requires sending HTTP requests, you'll likely be using the requests module. One important aspect of sending requests is setting headers, which provide additional information about the request being sent.

Setting Headers with Requests

To set headers with requests, you can use the headers parameter when making your request. The headers parameter is a dictionary containing the header keys and values.


import requests

headers = {
    'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64)',
    'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.5',
    'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate, br',
    'Connection': 'keep-alive',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}

response = requests.get('https://example.com', headers=headers)

print(response.status_code)

In this example, we are setting several headers including the user agent, accept language, accept encoding, connection, and content type. We then make a GET request to https://example.com with these headers and print out the status code of the response.

Multiple Ways to Set Headers

There are multiple ways to set headers with requests, including:

  • Using the headers parameter as shown above
  • Using the .header method on a request object
  • Setting headers for all requests by modifying the session object

The method you choose will depend on your specific use case.

Using the .header Method

The .header method allows you to set or modify headers on a request object. Here's an example:


import requests

response = requests.get('https://example.com')

response.headers['User-Agent'] = 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64)'
response.headers['Accept-Language'] = 'en-US,en;q=0.5'
response.headers['Accept-Encoding'] = 'gzip, deflate, br'
response.headers['Connection'] = 'keep-alive'
response.headers['Content-Type'] = 'application/json'

print(response.status_code)

In this example, we first make a GET request to https://example.com without setting any headers. We then use the .header method to set the headers on the response object. Finally, we print out the status code of the response.

Modifying the Session Object

If you need to set headers for all requests made with the requests module, you can modify the session object. Here's an example:


import requests

headers = {
    'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64)',
    'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.5',
    'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate, br',
    'Connection': 'keep-alive',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}

session = requests.Session()
session.headers.update(headers)

response = session.get('https://example.com')

print(response.status_code)

In this example, we set the headers we want to use as a dictionary. We then create a session object and update its headers with the dictionary. Finally, we make a GET request to https://example.com using the session object and print out the status code of the response.

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