get site name from a URL in python

Question

I am new to Python and it seems to have a lot of nice functions that I don't know about. What function can I use to get the root site name? For example, how would I get faqs.org if I gave the function the URL "http://www.faqs.org/docs/diveintopython/kgp_commandline.html"?

Answer 1

 >>> from urllib.parse import urlparse
 >>> urlparse('http://www.cwi.nl:80/%7Eguido/Python.html').hostname
 'www.cwi.nl'

Answer 2

The much overlooked urlparse module:

from urlparse import urlparse
scheme, netloc, path, params, query, fragment = urlparse("http://www.faqs.org/docs/diveintopython/kgp_commandline.html")
print netloc

Answer 3

http://docs.python.org/library/urlparse.html

Answer 4

What version of Python are you learning with? Note that SilentGhost's answer is for Python 3.0, while Alabaster Codify's will work with the 2.x series.