python_wikipedia_lookup

def getWikipediaURL(entity, redirect_match_only = False):
  '''
    input: entity - wikipedia search term
    input: redirect_match_only - True, False
    output: returns the wikipedia page for 'entity' (if found) or, if not found, the wikipedia search page (redirect_match_only == False)
            or None (redirect_match_only == True)
  '''
  url = 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?{}'.format(urllib.urlencode({'search': entity},'utf-8'))
  r = requests.head(url)
  if r.status_code == 302:
     # wikipedia responds with HTTP code 302 (redirect) if a full match or a partial match was found
     # the location header identifies the wikipedia page; return it
     return r.headers['Location']
  elif redirect_match_only:
     # return None
     return None
  else:
     # return the pre-populated search URL
     return url