How to write dynamic Xpath to identify elements on Webpage?


We always have concerns about writing Dynamic Xpath. So, I've listed below some ways to write xpath with example. If you face any problem, Contact Us:

1) Based on location
2) Using Single Attributes
3) Using Multiple Attributes
4) Using functions


All examples are based on following HTML Code:

input class="search-field" name="s" placeholder="Search …" title="Search for:" type="search" value=""



1- Based on location


1.1) / (Single Back Slash) - directly after the parent node

Ex-1 : /html/body/div[1]/div[2]/div[2]/div/div/div/div/form/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div/div/input

1.2) // (Double Back Slash) - Search in a whole page (DOM) for the preceding string

Ex-1 : //form/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div/div/input

2- Using Single Attributes


Syntax:

//tagname[@attributename='value']

Ex1- //input[@type='search']
Ex2- //input[@class='search-field']
Ex3- //input[@name='s']
Ex4- //*[@value='']

3- Using Multiple Attributes

Syntax:

//tagname[@attributename1='value1' and @attributename2='value2]

Ex 1-   //*[@type='search' and @class='search-field']
Ex 2-   //*[@value='' and @class='search-field']

4- Using functions

4.1) Using contains() function : Sometimes an element gets identified by a value that could be surrounded by other text, then Contains function can be used:

Syntax-

//tagname[contains(@node,'text-here')]

Ex 1-   //*[contains(@class,'search-field')]

4.2) Using last() function : Selects the last element out of all input element present

Ex 1- //input[last()]

4.3) Using position() function : Selects the element out of all input element present depending on the positions provided

Ex 1- //input[position()<3 font="">

4.4) Using starts-with function : Selects the element out of all input element present depending on the node starting with the specified text:

//input[starts-with(@class, 'search-')]

You can download a whole list of XPath, CSS, DOM identification table as PDF from here