> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://openup.gitbook.io/training-content/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://openup.gitbook.io/training-content/the-fundamentals-of-data-driven-storytelling/module-2-get/2.2-an-introduction-to-spreadsheet-software/simple-web-scraping-with-google-sheets.md).
# Simple web scraping with Google Sheets
Our goal, as discussed, is to get data into a spreadsheet application which can be used to perform analysis. In the last topic, we looked at scraping data from PDFs with **Tabula**.
If a table of data has been published on a web page, sometimes you can scrape it directly into your spreadsheet application. Here we are going to look at an example with **Google Sheets**.
Take a look at this page, which shows current and historical tender notices for the state owned entity (SOE) **CIPC**.
It doesn't look like it, but the list of tenders on this page is published as a table. If we want to import this list - for example to count how many tenders were issued in different months of the year - we can do it directly from within Google Sheets. First of all, we open up a new spreadsheet.
Put your cursor in cell A1 (for more information about how to navigate spreadsheets, see our **Data Pipeline** module). Now type the following formula. **=IMPORTHTML("", "table", 1)**
Let's pause for a second to look at that formula.
The equals sign at the start tells Google Sheets that this cell is a formula, not a string of text and numbers (like a paragraph). A formula is an instruction to do something, for example **=sum(A2:E2)** tells Google Sheets to add the values in column 2, rows A to E together. **=average(A2:E2)** would look for the arithmetic mean of the same numbers.
In our formula, **=importhtml** tells Google Sheets to load the webpage inside the brackets **("")**. It's important to notice the quote marks around the website URL.
Each element of the formula is separate by commas. The second element tells Google Sheets to load a **table** from the webpage, and the final element - the **1** - which table to load. For humans, reading the formula backwards makes more sense:
"Load the first table you find on ****. It's in HTML"
### Working with imported data
After you've entered the formula, your spreadsheet should look like this.
We can tidy this up by making the columns a little wider. Just put your cursor on the line between A and B at the top of the sheet, for example, and drag it manually to the right. You can also double click this line to automatically resize the column.
Now we have a table of all the latest tenders from CIPC, in a machine readable format. Because this table is reloaded from the original website every time we refresh our sheet, you might want to copy the data onto a fresh tab to store a copy for working on. Just press **CTRL + A** to select the whole table, and click the **+** icon in the bottom left to add a new tab to your spreadsheet. In Cell A1 on the new sheet, press **CTRL + SHIFT + V**. This is the command to **paste values only**, in other words, it takes the characters in each cell and not the formula.
Now your spreadsheet is ready for work.
