Pulling data from an API

danlightbulb · 24 Sep 2018 at 13:08

Hi all.

Im very capable on Excel and have some experience with Excel VBA.

If I can get some data into Excel I can do stuff with it no problem.

I want to be able to pull data from Betfair betting exchange using their API. Ive no idea how to do it. Ideally into Excel so I can then work some calcs etc on it.

Can anyone help with where to start please?

AHarvey · 24 Sep 2018 at 14:17

I can't access it at work but I doubt excel itself will be sufficient to use the API.

I've pulled public xml feeds before now, scraped them with Python and saved to a csv file.

Looks like the API can be used with Python so I'd use Python to pull all the data you want from the API down to a CSV file then use excel to format it as you like. Not sure on issues with Python updating it and Excel reading it.

Other option would be to take the jump straight into Python and go 100% python solution.

GravyMonster · 24 Sep 2018 at 16:24

Python isn't needed at all. You can make API calls from VBA very easily: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41928324/restful-api-call-from-excel-vba

Once you have the data it's a simple matter to iterate through it an display in the relevant cells.

AHarvey · 25 Sep 2018 at 06:33

Interesting, but I still wonder how well it will be able to interact with the API.

Keep us updated @danlightbulb as I will be interested in how you find it