What are the variances in using xpath with selenium webdriver?

WebElement element4=driver.findElement(By.xpath("/html/body/div/table/tbody/tr[2]/td[2]/div/div/div/div[4]/ul/li[3]/a"));

WebElement element3=driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@id='nav_cat_3']"));

When retrieving xpaths using firebug, both xpaths are being generated interchangeably. What could be the distinction between them even though both have functioning properly?

Answer №1

The first example examines the DOM, element by element, in detail. If the arrangement of elements on the page changes, this method may no longer be effective

In the second scenario, we target the element with the unique id of nav_cat_3. IDs are meant to be exclusive on a webpage and are recommended for targeting specific elements

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