Mastering BeautifulSoup: How to Find HTML Elements by Multiple Tags – A Comprehensive Guide

With Python and BeautifulSoup, it’s possible to locate any HTML element by either partial or exact element name. This can be achieved using the find / find_all method and regular expressions or CSS selectors, which opens up a wide array of possibilities for web scraping projects. Such flexibility is crucial when dealing with varied and complex web page structures, allowing for precise data extraction tailored to specific requirements. To enhance your scraping toolkit, incorporating the best web scraping API can elevate your ability to handle even the most challenging data extraction tasks. These APIs are designed to simplify the process of retrieving data from the web, offering robust solutions to overcome obstacles like dynamic content, anti-scraping technologies, and rate limiting. By leveraging these advanced tools, developers can achieve more efficient and effective web scraping outcomes, ensuring access to valuable data with minimal hassle.

import re
import bs4

soup = bs4.BeautifulSoup("""
<a>link</a>
<h1>heading 1</h1>
<h2>heading 2</h2>
<p>paragraph</p>
""")

# Using find() and find_all() methods:
# specify exact list
soup.find_all(["h1", "h2", "h3"])
# or regular expression 
soup.find_all(re.compile(r"hd"))  # this pattern matches "h<any single digit number>"
[<h1>heading 1</h1>, <h2>heading 1</h2>]

# using css selectors
soup.select("h1, h2, h3")
# or
soup.select(":is(h1, h2, h3)")
[<h1>heading 1</h1>, <h2>heading 1</h2>]