APIs (Application programming interface) can be interpreted as a composition of rules that enables developers and users to access an external service on web through our systems. Thus, an API sets certain formats which can access the service and the data to and from a model.

Through the use of Python, one can access this API data source through specific libraries.

Types of API Requests

Command	Description
GET	It enables the users to fetch the data from the APIs onto their system in a specific format that is usually JSON
POST	This command enables us to add data to the API i.e. to the service on web.
DELETE	It enables us to delete certain information from the API service on web.
PUT	Using PUT command, we can update an existing data or information in the API service on web.

Status/Response Codes

Status	Description
200	OK. It means we have a healthy connection with the API on web.
204	It depicts that we can successfully made a connection to the API, but did not return any data from the service.
401	Authentication failed!
403	Access is forbidden by the API service.
404	The requested API service is not found on the server/web.
500	Internal Server Error has occurred.

Connecting to an API with Python

1. Import proper libraries

   import requests
   

2. Perform an action to connect to the API and print response code

   response_API = requests.get('https://www.askpython.com/')
   print(response_API.status_code)