Looking to use wiki to query DOB for list of people

Copper Contributor

I have tried and failed to figure out how to deliver a date of birth for a long list of individuals. Rather than do it by hand with wiki, I assume there is a web query I could do to automate. 
I understand well enough to start with the "Data" tab and the "From Web" function, but have failed from that point onward.
I appreciate any help in this matter.

3 Replies

It very depends on how your web page is organized. If that's public source and you could give a sample it'll be easier to say something.

I am trying to download the date of birth (DoB) for notable people. Assuming the person is the top return on a Google search (e.g.: "Vanessa Williams DoB", or Rob Lowe or anyone else) the field will always look the same when the search result pops up. 
In a similar sense, I want to have a data column to provide "Y/N" outcome on whether the person is still alive, and where the return is "No", then have a similar query to return DoD.
Thank you in advance for your help.

Afraid that's not trivial task. If you have list of names and would like to return some info about them from Google search, you first need to organize access to Google Search API, as here https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/googlesearch-odata-power-query.rst,  or perhaps by some other way.

 

Never tried that.