Newbie needs help with scraping

So I am using irobot to scrape a website. Right now, it's just an experiment, (for learning) and I'm struggling to understand some key things.

#1 - I am scraping tables. I want to put this data into a database. But I wonder what to use as a key identifier? Especially if say, there are duplicate values. (like a name) I don't know how to get this data from the website. From what I can see, the only unique field in these tables that I can access, is the URL of each person's name.


#2 - I know how to scrape data from a specific URL - but I'm trying to automate the process. Seriously, I have no clue how to do that with table data. Ideally, I guess I'd get a list of links, and follow each of them individually to get the data, rather from the table they are compiled into.

Thanks in advance.

I have never used irobot but I will try to help you:

1) Use an ID identifier. Increment the id, with each new table row.
2) I would use regex for that (not sure if irobot supports it, but it should). You regex to find the big table, and then other regex search to find each row. Then easily scrape everything and do what you want with that info.

OK, I have to take a big step back here... Cause I'm in over my head, at the moment.

First off, irobot is being run from my desktop. I'm just learning. There is nothing server side. Secondly, I'm really not well versed at all in SQL, or any programming language. We're gonna have to take this down to a dummy level. You guys sound like you really know what you're doing. Only problem is, I don't.

Let me try to get on the same page, here. Without programming from scratch, or spending any money - is there some method I can use that would put me on an even keel with the 2 of you? Programming I can learn... But it would be best to be talking apples and apples.

Thank you for taking the time!

Well, this is my 15th post... So I'm off to the races. LOL

I am also facing probs with Scrapebox, all scraper are same ...!

SB is great for scraping emails and search engines