Google Refine 2.0 - Data Transformation (2 of 3) (video version 2)
Why Open Data Stack Exchange recommends it
Open Data Stack Exchange answerers point people to it when they need to scrape or convert Wikipedia lists and tables into clean, machine-readable data.
Recommended by 3 people across 3 different months, 2013 to 2017.
What it is
The second in a three-part tutorial series from the Google Refine team (now OpenRefine) on transforming messy data. It demonstrates cleaning and reshaping a Wikipedia list into a structured table using Refine's transformation tools.
What people said
Recommends Daniel Knell · 2013-05 · Open Data Stack Exchange · on “Good tools to parse repetitive unstructured data”
OpenRefine [LINK] can be used to parse semi-structured data into a table like structure, where it can be operated on in a manner similar to a spread sheet and exported. The site features a tutorial [this video] on converting a list on wikipedia into a table which may be a good starting point. The operations involved can also be exported incase you need to perform the same cleanup operation again.
Recommends magdmartin · 2013-06 · Open Data Stack Exchange · on “Wikipedia table to JSON (or other machine-readable format)”
Using OpenRefine [LINK] (previously Google Refine) you can easily convert the wikipedia table to a JSON document. The following video [this video] will walk you through the steps to clean the wikipedia table, then using the template exporter you will be able to define the JSON format of your output document. Working with OpenRefine will also allow you to extend your data using freebase. Disclamer: I am part of the OpenRefine team.
Recommends user4293 · 2017-01 · Open Data Stack Exchange · on “Emmy Award winners”
If you are going to (have to) scrape this, take a look at OpenRefine [LINK] (formerly Google Refine). In their second video tutorial [this video] they describe how to convert and massage a Wikipedia list. The data on your Wikipedia page is a table, not a list, so it will be more complicated (especially, you'll have to deal with the different colspans ).