Cheerio.js Cheat Sheet: Extract Data from Any HTML Page in 10 Lines

Cheerio is the fastest way to parse HTML in Node.js. jQuery syntax, zero browser overhead.

Install

npm install cheerio

Basic Usage

const cheerio = require('cheerio');

const html = await fetch('https://example.com').then(r => r.text());
const $ = cheerio.load(html);

// Extract data
const title = $('h1').text();
const links = $('a').map((i, el) => $(el).attr('href')).get();
const prices = $('.price').map((i, el) => $(el).text().trim()).get();

Common Patterns

Extract Table Data

const rows = $('table tr').map((i, row) => {
  const cells = $(row).find('td');
  return {
    name: $(cells[0]).text().trim(),
    value: $(cells[1]).text().trim()
  };
}).get();

Extract All Meta Tags

const meta = {};
$('meta').each((i, el) => {
  const name = $(el).attr('name') || $(el).attr('property');
  if (name) meta[name] = $(el).attr('content');
});

Extract Structured Data

const jsonLd = $('script[type="application/ld+json"]')
  .map((i, el) => JSON.parse($(el).html()))
  .get();

When NOT to Use Cheerio

• Site requires JavaScript rendering → use Playwright
• Site has a JSON API → use fetch directly (faster, more stable)
• Site blocks scrapers → need proxy rotation

API-First Rule

Before using Cheerio, always check if the site has a JSON API. 7 popular sites return JSON directly.

More Resources

• 5 Patterns That Never Break
• 77 Free Scrapers

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