You can ignore most of the specs that are irrelevant to your project on parametric searches. For example, here's how you'd find a generic through hole LED. Sea

You can ignore most of the specs that are irrelevant to your project on parametric searches. For example, here's how you'd find a generic through hole LED. Search for "through hole LED", pick a color, stocking option: in stock, sort by price, and pick whatever seems right for your project, making sure that you're not ordering something silly like 2500 LEDs (it'll be pretty obvious when you check out anyway). If there's something else that's relevant to your project (eg. the size or shape of the LED) then you can specify that. The datasheet is just a click or two away to do a sanity check that you're ordering something that makes sense. Obviously, for a generic component like a LED where the specs might not matter too much and it's fine if you get one of dubious quality, you can just get a random grab bag of LEDs off AliExpress. Or if the catalog overwhelms you, there's always Adafruit, SparkFun, Pololu, etc.