Selenium Xpath Tutorials - Identifying xpath for element with examples to use in selenium

Xpath in selenium is close to must required. XPath is element locator and you need to provide xpath during selenium test script creation. You need to provide any element locator(like id, name, css path, xpath etc.) in target column of selenium IDE software testing tool's window to locate that specific element to perform some action on it and you are already aware about that. In previous post, we have learn about how to identify element id or name of software web application's element . If you have worked with selenium IDE software testing tool then you knows that sometimes elements does not contains id or name. Locating element by Xpath in selenium is the another way of locating element and you can use it as a alternative of id or name of element.

What Is XPath?
Xpath in XML document shows the direction of software web application's element location through nodes and attributes.

Let we try to understand how to identify Xpath of element with examples.





Above given image is taken from http://www.wikipedia.org/. It is firebug view of page. You can read THIS POST to know how to install firebug and firepath in firefox browser and THIS POST will describe you how to use it. Look into the image there are three fields 1. Input text box 2. select drop down and 3. input button. And bellow of those fields there is expansion of relative XML nodes through firebug. As you see in image, you can use "id=searchInput" or "name=search" to identify input text box to type something in to it as bellow given example.

New Test
Command	Target	Value
open	http://www.wikipedia.org/
type	id=searchInput	ID Example

or

New Test
Command	Target	Value
open	http://www.wikipedia.org/
type	name=search	Name Example

Xpath in selenium Tutorial

Now if you want to identify same element (input textbox) with xpath then you can use any of the bellow given syntax in to the target column with type command in above example.

Locating element using Xpath in selenium with Examples for input text box

1. Identifying Xpath using full path of XML
xpath=//body/div[3]/form/fieldset/input[2] //// Here //body is the main root node, /div[3] describes the 3rd div child node of parent node body, /form describes the child node form of parent node div[3], /fieldset describes the child node fieldset of parent node form, /input[2] describes the 2nd input child node of parent node fieldset.

New Test
Command	Target	Value
open	http://www.wikipedia.org/
type	xpath= //body/div[3]/form/fieldset /input[2]	Xpath Example1

2. Writting Xpath using last()
xpath=//body/div[3]/form/fieldset/input[last()-2] //// Here /input[last()-2] describes the 3rd upper input node(input[2]) from last input node.
xpath=//body/div[3]/form/fieldset/*[last()-3] //// Here /*[last()-3] describes the 4th upper node(input[2]) from last node.

New Test
Command	Target	Value
open	http://www.wikipedia.org/
type	xpath= //body/div[3]/form/fieldset /input[last()-2]	Xpath Example2

3. Xpath locator using @ and attribute
xpath=//body/div[3]/form/fieldset/input[@type='search'] //// Here /input[@type='search'] describes the input node having attribute type='search'.

New Test
Command	Target	Value
open	http://www.wikipedia.org/
type	xpath= //body/div[3]/form/fieldset /input[@type='search']	Xpath Example3

4. Xpath expression using @ and attribute
xpath=//body/div[3]/form/fieldset/input[@accesskey='F'] //// Here /input[@accesskey='F'] describes the input node having attribute @accesskey='F'. Another way of same is as bellow.

New Test
Command	Target	Value
open	http://www.wikipedia.org/
type	xpath= //body/div[3]/form/fieldset /input[@accesskey='F']	Xpath Example4

5. Xpath in selenium using @ and attribute

xpath=//input[@accesskey='F'] //// Here //input[@accesskey='F'] describes the input node having attribute @accesskey='F'. Try it by using it in above example.

6. Xpath example using @ and attribute

xpath=//input[@type='search'] //// Here /input[@type='search'] describes the input node having attribute type='search'. Try it by using it in above example.

7. XML Xpath using /descendant:: keyword

xpath=//div[@class='search-container']/descendant::input[@accesskey='F'] //// Here i have used descendant in between. In this case i have described only starting node div with attribute class='search-container' and final node input with accesskey='F' attribute. So not need to describe in between nodes. Try it by using it in above example.

8. Xpath query example using contains keyword

xpath=//input[contains(@id, "searchInput")] ////Here i have used contains keyword to identify id attribute with text "searchInput". Try it by using it in above example.

9. xpath using and with attributes

xpath=//input[contains(@id, "searchInput") and contains(@accesskey,"F")] ////In this example, It will look at two attributes in input node. Try it by using it in above example.

10. XML xpath value value using position()

xpath=//div[@class='search-container']/descendant::input[position()=2] ////This xpath will select input node which is on number 2 position and it is for input text box as shown in image. Try it by using it in above example.

11. Using starts-with keyword
xpath=//input[starts-with(@type, "s")] //// In this example, It will find input node with attribute is 'type' and its value is starting with 's' (here it will get type = 'search').

12. Using OR (|) condition with xpath
xpath=//input[@accesskey='F'] | //input[@id='searchInput']
xpath=//input[@accesskey='F' or @id='searchInput'] //// In both these example, it will find input text box with accesskey='F' or @id='searchInput'. If any one found then it will locate it. Very useful when elements appears alternatively.

13. Using wildcard * with to finding element xpath
xpath=//*[@accesskey='F']

14. Finding nth child element of parent
xpath=//body/*[3]/form/fieldset/*[2] ////This xpath is for search text box. Here, /*[3] describes the 3rd child element of body which is div[3]. Same way *[2] describes the 2nd child element of fieldset which is input[2]

All above examples are for input text box. Now let me write Xpath for drop down.

Xpath Examples for drop down

1. xpath=//body/div[3]/form/fieldset/select

2. xpath=//body/div[3]/form/fieldset/select[last()]

3. xpath=//body/div[3]/form/fieldset/select[@id='searchLanguage']

4. xpath=//body/div[3]/form/fieldset/select[@name='language']

5. xpath=//div[@class='search-container']/descendant::select[@name='language']

6. xpath=//select[contains(@id, "searchLanguage")]

7. xpath=//div[@class='search-container']/descendant::select[position()=1]
8. xpath=//body/div[3]/form/fieldset/select[count(*)>1]

New Test
Command	Target	Value
open	http://www.wikipedia.org/
select	xpath=//div[@class='search-container']/descendant::select[position()=1]	label=English

Other Xpath Example
1. Finding xpath in selenium for target link 'url'
//a[@href='//meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias'] ////This xpath example will find link with given URL (//meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias) on the page.

2. Finding xpath of element with no child
xpath=//img[count(*)=0] ////This xpath is for wikipedia text logo which is display on top of the page. This xpath will find that image element which have not any child element. Here image node is last and it has not any child element.

xpath=//div[2]/descendant::img[count(*)=0] //// This xpath is for wikipedia logo image which is display under logo text.