What is XPath in Selenium?
XPath in Selenium is an XML path used for navigation through the HTML structure of the page. It is a syntax or language for finding any element on a web page using XML path expression. XPath can be used for both HTML and XML documents to find the location of any element on a webpage using HTML DOM structure.
In Selenium automation, if the elements are not found by the general locators like id, class, name, etc. then XPath is used to find an element on the web page.
XPath Syntax
XPath contains the path of the element situated at the web page. Standard XPath syntax for creating XPath is.
Xpath=//tagname[@attribute='value']
The basic format of XPath in selenium is explained below with screen shot.
- // : Select current node.
- Tagname: Tagname of the particular node.
- @: Select attribute.
- Attribute: Attribute name of the node.
- Value: Value of the attribute.
To find the element on web pages accurately there are different types of locators:
| XPath Locators | Find different elements on web page |
|---|---|
| ID | To find the element by ID of the element |
| Classname | To find the element by Classname of the element |
| Name | To find the element by name of the element |
| Link text | To find the element by text of the link |
| XPath | XPath required for finding the dynamic element and traverse between various elements of the web page |
| CSS path | CSS path also locates elements having no name, class or ID. |
Types of X-path
There are two types of XPath:
1) Absolute XPath
2) Relative XPath
Absolute XPath:
It is the direct way to find the element, but the disadvantage of the absolute XPath is that if there are any changes made in the path of the element then that XPath gets failed.
The key characteristic of XPath is that it begins with the single forward slash(/) ,which means you can select the element from the root node.
Relative Xpath:
Relative Xpath starts from the middle of HTML DOM structure. It starts with double forward slash (//). It can search elements anywhere on the webpage, means no need to write a long xpath and you can start from the middle of HTML DOM structure. Relative Xpath is always preferred as it is not a complete path from the root element.