Get information about YouTube Channel using Python


YouTube, the world's largest video-sharing website, hosts a wide variety of media. Individuals or groups can create channels on YouTube, and recordings can be uploaded for others to view. Using Python, we will use the Google API in this tutorial to learn more about a YouTube channel.

Installation

pip install --upgrade google-api-python-client
  • Navigate to https://console.cloud.google.com/ to access the Google Cloud Console.

  • Choose an existing project or start a new one.

  • On the left-hand menu, pick APIs & Services > Dashboard by clicking the "Navigation menu" symbol .

  • Choose "+ ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES" from the menu.In the search box, type "YouTube Data API v3" and click it.

  • For your project, click the "ENABLE" button to make the API available.

  • Choose "Create Credentials" and "API key" credential type should be selected.

  • When asked, choose "Application data."

  • The next screen will reveal your API key. Use this key's copy in your code.

Algorithm

  • Import the required libraries

  • Set up the API client

  • Get the channel ID

  • Use the channel ID to get the channel statistics

  • Print the statistics

Example

Be sure to change the value of the variable api_key with your own credential.

# Import the required libraries
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from googleapiclient.errors import HttpError

# Set up the API client
api_key = "<add-your-api-key-here>"
youtube = build('youtube', 'v3', developerKey=api_key)

# Get the channel ID
channel_name = "PewdiePie"
request = youtube.search().list(q=channel_name, type='channel', part='id', maxResults=1)
response = request.execute()
channel_id = response['items'][0]['id']['channelId']

# Use the channel ID to get the channel statistics
request = youtube.channels().list(part='statistics', id=channel_id)
response = request.execute()

# Print the statistics
print(f"Channel name: {channel_name}")
print(f"Channel ID: {channel_id}")
print("View Count: " + response['items'][0]['statistics']['viewCount'])
print("Subscriber Count: " + response['items'][0]['statistics']['subscriberCount'])
print("Video Count: " + response['items'][0]['statistics']['videoCount'])
print(response['items'][0])

Output

Channel name: PewdiePie
Channel ID: UC-lHJZR3Gqxm24_Vd_AJ5Yw
View Count: 28986455221
Subscriber Count: 111000000
Video Count: 4710
  • Import the necessary libraries: build and HttpError from googleapiclient.discovery, and HttpError from googleapiclient.errors.

  • Set up the API client by creating a variable api_key and initializing the youtube object with build() function from the googleapiclient.discovery module. Pass in the 'youtube' and 'v3' parameters to specify the API endpoint and version, and provide the developer key using the developerKey argument. Replace the placeholder "" with your own API key obtained from Google.

  • Search for the channel name using the search() method from the youtube object. Set the q parameter to the channel name and type parameter to 'channel' and set the part parameter to 'id' to only retrieve the channel ID, and limit the maximum number of results to 1 using the maxResults parameter. The search response is stored in the response variable, and we extract the channel ID from it and store it in the channel_id variable.

  • Finally, use the channel ID obtained from the previous step to retrieve the channel statistics using the channels().list() method. Here, we set the part parameter to 'statistics' and the id parameter to the channel ID. The statistics response is stored in the response variable.

Applications

  • Businesses and individuals who want to monitor their own or their rivals' performance can benefit greatly from YouTube channel data since it makes it possible to learn about what is working well and what could be improved using this data.

  • With the assistance of Python and the YouTube Information Programming interface, it is possible to scratch information for various channels on the double and use it for further developed undertakings, for example, feeling examination or AI preparing pipelines.

  • Natural language processing, or NLP, is used in sentiment analysis to look at the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes that are expressed in text. It is attainable to extricate patterns, watchwords, and the diversion esteem related with specific subjects by scratching information from a few YouTube channels which is vital for businesses that want to learn about their customers' interests and preferences and create targeted marketing campaigns that work.

Conclusion

In this article, we explored how to get information about a YouTube channel using Python. We first installed the required library and obtained an API key from Google. We then wrote some code that demonstrated how to get the channel statistics based on the channel name. We also discussed some possible applications of this information. With this knowledge, you can start exploring YouTube data and building your own applications that utilize it.

Updated on: 18-Jul-2023

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