Selenium: The art of pinpointing a specific node through precise text matching

When trying to find an Element on a Web Page using text, I am aware of the method called contains. For example:

tr[contains(.,'hello')]/td

However, the issue arises when there are two elements with names hello and hello1 as this function does not work accurately.

Is there another method similar to contains that allows for exact string matching when locating elements?

Answer №1

td[contains(., 'hello')]/tr

This XPath will select all tr elements that contain a td child element with the text 'hello' in it. This approach may seem more straightforward and intuitive.

In comparison to the previous XPath expression, this one explicitly targets tr elements based on the presence of a td containing the specified text 'hello'.

Does this explanation clarify things for you?

Answer №2

Every situation is unique based on the content of your HTML code, but using the XPath selector tr[contains(.,'hello')]/td means "selecting the first cell in the first row that contains the word 'hello' anywhere within it" (or more precisely, "the first TD element in the TR element that contains the string 'hello' anywhere within it", since Selenium cannot fully understand the elements at play). This is why you are getting incorrect results when there are rows with both "hello" and "hello1" as both contain the word "hello".

A more precise selector would be tr[. ='hello']/td, however, it is less common (as HTML TR elements should not have text - this should be in TH or TD elements within the TR), and may not work due to other textual content in the cells. The suggested approach is to use tr[td[.='hello']]/td, which signifies "the first TD element that is inside the TR element containing a TD element with the exact text 'hello'".

Answer №3

It appears that the issue lies in your attempt to search for text within the tr element, which is not the correct approach. This could be causing a problem with the function contains, as it does not accept a list of text inputs. Instead, consider using the following location path to retrieve the desired information:

//tr/td[contains(./text(),"hello")]

Once you have retrieved this set of nodes, you will need to iterate through them to access the desired text. You may also try appending

/text()

However, be aware that this may result in a concatenated string of all matched strings in some cases.

Answer №4

Dealing with a similar issue, I encountered a problem where I had a assortment of elements, including one labeled "Picture" and another called "Text and Picture". Despite trying the suggestions provided in various forums, none seemed to resolve my issue. Out of desperation, I attempted the following approach which surprisingly worked:

List<WebElement> elementList = new ArrayList<WebElement>();
elementList = driver.findElements(By.xpath("//*[text()= '" +componentName+"']"));

for(WebElement element : elementList){
    if(element.getText().equals(componentName)){
       element.click();
    }
}

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