Mastering XPath in Selenium with Python

🔍 What is XPath?

XPath (XML Path Language) is a query language used to navigate through elements and attributes in an XML or HTML document. Selenium uses XPath to locate elements on a web page when other selectors like ID or class are not enough.


✅ Basic Setup with Selenium and Python

bash

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pip install selenium

python

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from selenium import webdriver


driver = webdriver.Chrome()

driver.get("https://example.com")


# Example using XPath

element = driver.find_element("xpath", "//h1")

print(element.text)


driver.quit()

📘 Types of XPath

1. Absolute XPath

Navigates from the root node


Fragile and not recommended for dynamic content


xpath

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/html/body/div[1]/section/h1

2. Relative XPath ✅ (Recommended)

Starts from a known element and is more stable


xpath

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//div[@class='product']//h2

🔧 XPath Syntax Essentials

🔹 Attributes

xpath

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//input[@name='email']

🔹 Text Matching

xpath

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//button[text()='Submit']

🔹 Contains (for partial matches)

xpath

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//div[contains(@class, 'card')]

🔹 Starts-with

xpath

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//input[starts-with(@id, 'user')]

🔹 Logical Operators

xpath

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//input[@type='text' and @name='username']

🧩 Navigating the DOM

🔸 Parent Node

xpath

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//span[@class='price']/..

🔸 Child Nodes

xpath

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//div[@class='menu']/ul/li

🔸 Following/preceding siblings

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//label[text()='Email']/following-sibling::input

🛠 Using XPath in Selenium Python

python

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from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By


# Find element with XPath

element = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//button[contains(text(), 'Login')]")

element.click()

✅ You can also use find_elements(By.XPATH, ...) to get a list.


🧪 XPath Tips for Robustness

Prefer relative XPath


Avoid long, deeply nested paths


Use unique attributes, contains(), or indexed selections for dynamic pages


Use browser DevTools: right-click → Inspect → Copy XPath (but tweak it afterward)


🔍 Example: Dynamic Table Row Selection

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//table[@id='orders']//tr[td[text()='Order #12345']]/td[3]

This finds the 3rd column of the row where the first column contains "Order #12345".


🚀 Advanced Use Cases

Click a button next to a specific label:

xpath

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//label[text()='Username']/following::input[1]

Select the last item in a list:

xpath

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//ul[@id='items']/li[last()]

📚 Resources for Practice

XPath Tester


Try XPath expressions directly in Chrome DevTools:


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$x("//h1[contains(text(), 'Welcome')]") 

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What are Locators in Selenium and How to Use Them

🔍 Locating and Interacting with Web Elements

Setting Up Selenium in PyCharm or VS Code

Top Tools You Need to Start Selenium with Python

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