What are the advantages and disadvantages of using an API for retrieving data compared to web scraping with PHP?

When retrieving data, using an API has advantages such as structured data, faster performance, and easier maintenance. However, APIs may have limitations in terms of data availability and rate limits. On the other hand, web scraping with PHP allows for more flexibility in data extraction but can be more complex to implement and may be less reliable due to website changes. 

// Example PHP code for retrieving data using an API
$api_url = 'https://api.example.com/data';
$api_key = 'your_api_key_here';

$response = file_get_contents($api_url . '?api_key=' . $api_key);
$data = json_decode($response);

// Process the retrieved data
foreach($data as $item) {
    echo $item->name . ': ' . $item->value . '<br>';
}

Keywords

API web scraping PHP data retrieval advantages disadvantages

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