[xpath] How to select specified node within Xpath node sets by index with Selenium?

I'm writing a Selenium testcase. And here's the xpath expression I use to match all 'Modify' buttons within a data table.

//img[@title='Modify']

My question is, how can I visit the matched node sets by index? I've tried with

//img[@title='Modify'][i]

and

//img[@title='Modify' and position() = i]

But neither works.. I also tried with XPath checker(One firefox extension). There're totally 13 matches found, then I have totally no idea how am I gonna select one of them.. Or does XPath support specified selection of nodes which are not under same parent node?

This question is related to xpath selenium

The answer is


//img[@title='Modify'][i]

is short for

/descendant-or-self::node()/img[@title='Modify'][i]

hence is returning the i'th node under the same parent node.

You want

/descendant-or-self::img[@title='Modify'][i]

Here is the solution for index variable

Let's say, you have found 5 elements with same locator and you would like to perform action on each element by providing index number (here, variable is used for index as "i")

for(int i=1; i<=5; i++)
{
    string xPathWithVariable = "(//div[@class='className'])" + "[" + i + "]";
    driver.FindElement(By.XPath(xPathWithVariable)).Click();
}

It takes XPath :

(//div[@class='className'])[1]
(//div[@class='className'])[2]
(//div[@class='className'])[3]
(//div[@class='className'])[4]
(//div[@class='className'])[5]

There is no i in XPath.

Either you use literal numbers: //img[@title='Modify'][1]

Or you build the expression string dynamically: '//img[@title='Modify']['+i+']' (but keep in mind that dynamic XPath expressions do not work from within XSLT).

Or does XPath support specified selection of nodes which are not under same parent node?

Yes: (//img[@title='Modify'])[13]


This //img[@title='Modify'][i] means "any <img> with a title of 'Modify' and a child element named <i>."


(//*[@attribute='value'])[index] to find target of element while your finding multiple matches in it


There is no i in xpath is not entirely true. You can still use the count() to find the index.

Consider the following page

_x000D_
_x000D_
<html>_x000D_
_x000D_
 <head>_x000D_
  <title>HTML Sample table</title>_x000D_
 </head>_x000D_
_x000D_
 <style>_x000D_
 table, td, th {_x000D_
  border: 1px solid black;_x000D_
  font-size: 15px;_x000D_
  font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;_x000D_
 }_x000D_
 table {_x000D_
  border-collapse: collapse;_x000D_
  width: 100%;_x000D_
 }_x000D_
_x000D_
 th, td {_x000D_
  text-align: left;_x000D_
  padding: 8px;_x000D_
 }_x000D_
_x000D_
 tr:nth-child(even){background-color: #f2f2f2}_x000D_
_x000D_
 th {_x000D_
  background-color: #4CAF50;_x000D_
  color: white;_x000D_
 }_x000D_
 </style>_x000D_
_x000D_
 <body>_x000D_
 <table>_x000D_
  <thead>_x000D_
   <tr>_x000D_
    <th>Heading 1</th>_x000D_
    <th>Heading 2</th>_x000D_
    <th>Heading 3</th>_x000D_
    <th>Heading 4</th>_x000D_
    <th>Heading 5</th>_x000D_
    <th>Heading 6</th>_x000D_
   </tr>_x000D_
  </thead>_x000D_
  <tbody>_x000D_
   <tr>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 1 col 1</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 1 col 2</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 1 col 3</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 1 col 4</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 1 col 5</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 1 col 6</td>_x000D_
   </tr>_x000D_
   <tr>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 2 col 1</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 2 col 2</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 2 col 3</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 2 col 4</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 2 col 5</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 2 col 6</td>_x000D_
   </tr>_x000D_
   <tr>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 3 col 1</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 3 col 2</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 3 col 3</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 3 col 4</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 3 col 5</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 3 col 6</td>_x000D_
   </tr>_x000D_
   <tr>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 4 col 1</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 4 col 2</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 4 col 3</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 4 col 4</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 4 col 5</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 4 col 6</td>_x000D_
   </tr>_x000D_
   <tr>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 5 col 1</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 5 col 2</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 5 col 3</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 5 col 4</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 5 col 5</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 5 col 6</td>_x000D_
   </tr>_x000D_
   <tr>_x000D_
    <td><button>Modify</button></td>_x000D_
    <td><button>Modify</button></td>_x000D_
    <td><button>Modify</button></td>_x000D_
    <td><button>Modify</button></td>_x000D_
    <td><button>Modify</button></td>_x000D_
    <td><button>Modify</button></td>_x000D_
   </tr>_x000D_
  </tbody>_x000D_
 </table>_x000D_
_x000D_
 </br>_x000D_
_x000D_
 <table>_x000D_
  <thead>_x000D_
   <tr>_x000D_
    <th>Heading 7</th>_x000D_
    <th>Heading 8</th>_x000D_
    <th>Heading 9</th>_x000D_
    <th>Heading 10</th>_x000D_
    <th>Heading 11</th>_x000D_
    <th>Heading 12</th>_x000D_
   </tr>_x000D_
  </thead>_x000D_
  <tbody>_x000D_
   <tr>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 1 col 1</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 1 col 2</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 1 col 3</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 1 col 4</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 1 col 5</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 1 col 6</td>_x000D_
   </tr>_x000D_
   <tr>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 2 col 1</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 2 col 2</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 2 col 3</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 2 col 4</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 2 col 5</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 2 col 6</td>_x000D_
   </tr>_x000D_
   <tr>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 3 col 1</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 3 col 2</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 3 col 3</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 3 col 4</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 3 col 5</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 3 col 6</td>_x000D_
   </tr>_x000D_
   <tr>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 4 col 1</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 4 col 2</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 4 col 3</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 4 col 4</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 4 col 5</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 4 col 6</td>_x000D_
   </tr>_x000D_
   <tr>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 5 col 1</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 5 col 2</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 5 col 3</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 5 col 4</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 5 col 5</td>_x000D_
    <td>Data row 5 col 6</td>_x000D_
   </tr>_x000D_
   <tr>_x000D_
    <td><button>Modify</button></td>_x000D_
    <td><button>Modify</button></td>_x000D_
    <td><button>Modify</button></td>_x000D_
    <td><button>Modify</button></td>_x000D_
    <td><button>Modify</button></td>_x000D_
    <td><button>Modify</button></td>_x000D_
   </tr>_x000D_
  </tbody>_x000D_
 </table>_x000D_
_x000D_
 </body>_x000D_
</html>
_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_

The page has 2 tables and has 6 columns each with unique column names and 6 rows with variable data. The last row has the Modify button in both the tables.

Assuming that the user has to select the 4th Modify button from the first table based on the heading

Use the xpath //th[.='Heading 4']/ancestor::thead/following-sibling::tbody/tr/td[count(//tr/th[.='Heading 4']/preceding-sibling::th)+1]/button

The count() operator comes in handy in situations like these.

Logic:

  1. Find the header for the Modify button using //th[.='Heading 4']
  2. Find the index of the header column using count(//tr/th[.='Heading 4']/preceding-sibling::th)+1

Note: Index starts at 0

  1. Get the rows for the corresponding header using //th[.='Heading 4']/ancestor::thead/following-sibling::tbody/tr/td[count(//tr/th[.='Heading 4']/preceding-sibling::th)+1]

  2. Get the Modify button from the extracted node list using //th[.='Heading 4']/ancestor::thead/following-sibling::tbody/tr/td[count(//tr/th[.='Heading 4']/preceding-sibling::th)+1]/button


Examples related to xpath

Xpath: select div that contains class AND whose specific child element contains text XPath: difference between dot and text() How to set "value" to input web element using selenium? How to click a href link using Selenium XPath: Get parent node from child node What is the difference between absolute and relative xpaths? Which is preferred in Selenium automation testing? How to use XPath preceding-sibling correctly Selenium and xPath - locating a link by containing text How to verify an XPath expression in Chrome Developers tool or Firefox's Firebug? Concatenate multiple node values in xpath

Examples related to selenium

SessionNotCreatedException: Message: session not created: This version of ChromeDriver only supports Chrome version 81 session not created: This version of ChromeDriver only supports Chrome version 74 error with ChromeDriver Chrome using Selenium Selenium: WebDriverException:Chrome failed to start: crashed as google-chrome is no longer running so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed WebDriverException: unknown error: DevToolsActivePort file doesn't exist while trying to initiate Chrome Browser Class has been compiled by a more recent version of the Java Environment How to configure ChromeDriver to initiate Chrome browser in Headless mode through Selenium? How to make Firefox headless programmatically in Selenium with Python? element not interactable exception in selenium web automation Selenium Web Driver & Java. Element is not clickable at point (x, y). Other element would receive the click How do you fix the "element not interactable" exception?