Using online python for course, How do I open a File that's a link?

[WhatsupSmiley]

Hi there!

I am doing a (beginner) python course online that allows us to use python in a jupyter notebook. I am trying to open a file that looks like a link and is a .csv.

links={'GDP':'https://s3-api.us-geo.objectstorage.softlayer.net/cf-courses-data/CognitiveClass/PY0101EN/projects/coursera_project/clean_gdp.csv',\
       'unemployment':'https://s3-api.us-geo.objectstorage.softlayer.net/cf-courses-data/CognitiveClass/PY0101EN/projects/coursera_project/clean_unemployment.csv'}
#GDP = links["GDP"]
#print(GDP)
with open('https://s3-api.us-geo.objectstorage.softlayer.net/cf-courses-data/CognitiveClass/PY0101EN/projects/coursera_project/clean_gdp.csv', 'r') as GDPFile:
    GDPData = GDPFile.read()
    print(GDPData)
print(GDPFile.closed)
print(GDPData)

And I get this error:

Error:
FileNotFoundError                         Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-14-53937e55fa2e> in <module>
      4 #GDP = links["GDP"]
      5 #print(GDP)
----> 6 with open('https://s3-api.us-geo.objectstorage.softlayer.net/cf-courses-data/CognitiveClass/PY0101EN/projects/coursera_project/clean_gdp.csv', 'r') as GDPFile:
      7     GDPData = GDPFile.read()
      8     print(GDPData)

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'https://s3-api.us-geo.objectstorage.softlayer.net/cf-courses-data/CognitiveClass/PY0101EN/projects/coursera_project/clean_gdp.csv'

So I downloaded the file to my local drive and tried it this way:

links={'GDP':'https://s3-api.us-geo.objectstorage.softlayer.net/cf-courses-data/CognitiveClass/PY0101EN/projects/coursera_project/clean_gdp.csv',\
       'unemployment':'https://s3-api.us-geo.objectstorage.softlayer.net/cf-courses-data/CognitiveClass/PY0101EN/projects/coursera_project/clean_unemployment.csv'}
#GDP = links["GDP"]
#print(GDP)
with open('C:\Users\Amanda\Documents\Coursera IBM Data Science Certification\Python for Data Science and AI\clean_gdp.csv', 'r') as GDPFile:
    GDPData = GDPFile.read()
    print(GDPData)
print(GDPFile.closed)
print(GDPData)

However I get this error:

Error:
File "<ipython-input-11-59f1f16be3ed>", line 6
    with open('C:\Users\Amanda\Documents\Coursera IBM Data Science Certification\Python for Data Science and AI\clean_gdp.csv', 'r') as GDPFile:
             ^
SyntaxError: (unicode error) 'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes in position 2-3: truncated \UXXXXXXXX escape

Am I missing something? Does the file need to be saved in the notebook or under the same project? I'm using python on a data platform, IBM cloud.

[buran]

The second error is because you use backslash in path and some combinations like \u are escape sequences.
When on windows, use raw strings for path, or use forward slash.

for reading from web

import requests
import csv
import io

import pandas

base_url = 'https://s3-api.us-geo.objectstorage.softlayer.net/cf-courses-data/CognitiveClass/PY0101EN/projects/coursera_project/'
links={'GDP':'clean_gdp.csv', 'unemployment':'clean_unemployment.csv'}
url = f"{base_url}{links['GDP']}"

# using requests and csv
response = requests.get(url)
csv_rdr = csv.reader(io.StringIO(response.text)) # also you can use DictReader instead
print(list(csv_rdr)[:5])  # you can iterate over csv_rdr instead

# alternative - using pandas
data = pandas.read_csv(url)
print(data.head())