Python BeautifulSoup: Find the text of the first <a> tag of a given html text

Last update on May 28 2022 13:22:55 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

BeautifulSoup: Exercise-6 with Solution

Write a Python program to find the text of the first <a> tag of a given html text.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
html_doc = """
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>An example of HTML page</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>This is an example HTML page</h2>
<p>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc at nisi velit,
aliquet iaculis est. Curabitur porttitor nisi vel lacus euismod egestas. In hac
habitasse platea dictumst. In sagittis magna eu odio interdum mollis. Phasellus
sagittis pulvinar facilisis. Donec vel odio volutpat tortor volutpat commodo.
Donec vehicula vulputate sem, vel iaculis urna molestie eget. Sed pellentesque
adipiscing tortor, at condimentum elit elementum sed. Mauris dignissim
elementum nunc, non elementum felis condimentum eu. In in turpis quis erat
imperdiet vulputate. Pellentesque mauris turpis, dignissim sed iaculis eu,
euismod eget ipsum. Vivamus mollis adipiscing viverra. Morbi at sem eget nisl
euismod porta.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.w3resource.com/html/HTML-tutorials.php">Learn HTML from w3resource.com</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.w3resource.com/css/CSS-tutorials.php">Learn CSS from 
w3resource.com</a></p>
</body>
</html>
"""
soup = BeautifulSoup(html_doc, 'html.parser')
print("Text of the first <a> tag:")
print(soup.find('a').text)

Sample Output:

Text of the first <a> tag:
Learn HTML from w3resource.com

Python Code Editor:

Have another way to solve this solution? Contribute your code (and comments) through Disqus.

Previous: Write a Python program to find the length of the text of the first heading2 tag of a given html document.
Next:Write a Python program to find the href of the first <a> tag of a given html document.

Python: Tips of the Day

Find current directory and file's directory:

To get the full path to the directory a Python file is contained in, write this in that file:

import os dir_path = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))

(Note that the incantation above won't work if you've already used os.chdir() to change your current working directory, since the value of the __file__ constant is relative to the current working directory and is not changed by an os.chdir() call.)

To get the current working directory use

import os cwd = os.getcwd()

Documentation references for the modules, constants and functions used above:

The os and os.path modules.

The __file__ constant

os.path.realpath(path) (returns "the canonical path of the specified filename, eliminating any symbolic links encountered in the path")

os.path.dirname(path) (returns "the directory name of pathname path")

os.getcwd() (returns "a string representing the current working directory")

os.chdir(path) ("change the current working directory to path")

Ref: https://bit.ly/3fy0R6m