How to get a youtube video url using youtube dl in python

Question

I want to create a python program that allows me to input search terms and return the url of the first result

def search(search):
    #Gets the youtube url of the first result
    return url

Something along those lines. I don't know too much about youtube-dl nor how to implement it into python as I couldn't find much info on how to do this through google.

Gnik · Answer 1 · 2018-04-15T05:53:24.387

1

If you are using python 3.5 then this is pretty simple. I don't know if this works in previous versions of python 3.x. The result that is returned here is a list of the URLs. So if you want the first result use search(text)[0]

import subprocess 
def search(text):
    command=['youtube-dl', 'ytsearch:"' + text+'"', '-g']
    result=subprocess.run(command,stdout=subprocess.PIPE,stderr=subprocess.PIPE,universal_newlines=True).stdout.split()
    return result

edited Apr 15 '18 at 05:53

answered Apr 15 '18 at 05:11

Gnik

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Doesn't command need to be a list? – Andy Hayden Apr 15 '18 at 05:18
It does not need to be a list if `shell=True`. – Gnik Apr 15 '18 at 05:35
Would this be better as list though? `['youtube-dl ', 'ytsearch:" + text, ' -g']` and not pass `shell=True`? That may mean no need to sanitize? – Andy Hayden Apr 15 '18 at 05:44
1

Yes that seems to be the better method. I will edit accordingly. – Gnik Apr 15 '18 at 05:50

NVRM · Answer 2 · 2018-04-15T04:56:09.867

You must know that every good linux programs has some instructions built-in. To see them, try youtube-dl --help or man youtube-dl

For your question, from the command line:

youtube-dl "ytsearch:Rick Astley" -g

No idea about python, but it should be pretty close to the following equivalent in bash.

#!/bin/bash
youtube-dl "ytsearch: $1" -g

just save this in a file, give it the «execution permision» «allow file to be executed as program» or from the command line chmod +x myprogram.

Then to call:

./myprogram 'rick astley'

This will output the first link. The procedure is exactly the same in many languages: python, php, bash (etc). This is a bash script.

Good luck ;)

How to get a youtube video url using youtube dl in python

2 Answers2