Best language for a project?

Hi I'm hoping to build a program to complete a list of functions, I have no experience in programming and was hoping someone could push me in the right direction.

I wish to create code that will go to a specific web page, store information from the page and then access a few links off the page and then gather information again. Sometimes there will be missing data and the number of instances will be different on each page too. I'm hoping that I can just use some kind of function that will load the whole page in a text format and then I can use a search function to point it to the areas it needs to look?

When this information has been stored I wish to enter the information into a neural network. I'd like to store the information in a file (some kind of database), as while trying to optimise my network I'll be trying different inputs, transformations etc. i.e. using the data over and over again.

I've been going through the basics of c++ this morning and was looking for methods to access the internet when I read something suggesting c++ was a difficult language to access the internet through? But I had been intending to use c++ for the actual neural network as I'd found a class for them in this language: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/recipes/BP.aspx

edit: Basically I'm asking whether it is best to stick with c++, if my conjectured methodology is based in reality, and how can I store my information?

Computer languages are just tools and you want to use the right one for the job. So it depends on what you are going for and your programming ability. If you have no programming experience, diving right into C++ will have a little steeper learning curve. You may want to consider C# which is a little easier to learn.

Though no matter the language, having a project you want to do can help a lot towards learning programming.

As to answer your question about accessing the internet, if you want to download webpages, I'd recommend using libcurl: http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/ It will let you download the web pages from the internet.

And you can use a variety of databases with C++.

Hmm ok I'll carry on through my guides on c++ and then look at the corresponding c# ones and see what I think.

libcurl looks ideal, thank you :)

This kind of web crawler app would be much easier to write in a higher level language such as PHP which is actually built for the job.

If you're new to programming, get started with PHP. If you really need more power, look at C#. If you think you can handle C# but need more low level control, you can move to C++. If you are real control freak and don't trust libraries that make your life easier in C++ (curl, boost, log4cxx), you can learn C.

C# or asp.net could be a better language to use in this case.

This kind of web crawler app would be much easier to write in a higher level language such as PHP which is actually built for the job.
PHP a higher level language? C++ is a high level language. Comparing C++ and PHP isn't even on the same level either. PHP is a server-side language used in web development. It can also be used as a scripting language.

If the OP wishes to build a web page that collects the info for some kind of web presentation, then yes, I'd suggest PHP. However, this sounds more like a web crawler, and C++ is one of the top languages for that purpose. Look here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawler) at web crawlers, both restricted and open source. You'll see many of them are coded in C++ with Python (a scripting language), C and Java. One crawler from what I see was written in C#.

If you are real control freak and don't trust libraries that make your life easier in C++ (curl, boost, log4cxx), you can learn C.
C uses plenty of libraries also to make your life easier. Stating the above doesn't help the OP in selecting a language. Web crawlers are written in C also. As OG stated, it all has to do with what tool will work best for you purpose, and has nothing to do with not wanting to utilize libraries.

C# or asp.net could be a better language to use in this case.
How so? You need to offer supporting material if you're going to make such a claim. Again, see the web crawlers linked above. C# was the least common language used, with C++, C, and Java being the highest. Does it mean that those 3 are best suited for the OP's needs? No, but it does at least offer some proof of concept and supporting evidence that others have found those languages to be the most effective.

-Shane