Extract the first paragraph from a Wikipedia article (Python)

Question

How can I extract the first paragraph from a Wikipedia article, using Python?

For example, for Albert Einstein, that would be:

<

Answer 1

The relatively new REST API has a summary method that is perfect for this use, and does a lot of the things mentioned in the other answers here (e.g. removing wikicode). It even includes an image and geocoordinates if applicable.

Using the lovely requests module and Python 3:

import requests
r = requests.get("https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/summary/Amsterdam")
page = r.json()
print(page["extract"]) # Returns 'Amsterdam is the capital and...'