An Xpath expression that functions perfectly in Firefox isn't working as expected in Selenium

Question

I have a question regarding xpath. In Chrome, there is a td element with the following content:

<td class="dataCol col02">
"Hello world(notes:there is$)nbsp;"
<a href="xxxx">[View Hierarchy]</a>
</td>

However, when I inspect the same element in Firefox, it does not contain $nbsp and double quotes:

<td class="dataCol col02">
Hello world
<a href="xxxx">[View Hierarchy]</a>
</td>

I used FireFinder and the xpath:

//td[text()='Hello world']

, which successfully located that element.

But when using selenium api 2.24, it could not find the element.

by.xpath("//td[text()='Hello world']")

Any insights on this issue would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Answer 1

Answer №1

Consider using the normalize-space() function to remove extra whitespace at the beginning and end of text:

//td[normalize-space(text())='Hello world']

Make adjustments based on the comments provided:

Here is an improved XPath expression that may be more versatile:

//td[starts-with(normalize-space(.), 'Hello world')]

This expression targets <td> elements where the trimmed content begins with "Hello world"

Answer 2

Consider using the normalize-space() function to remove extra whitespace at the beginning and end of text:

//td[normalize-space(text())='Hello world']

Make adjustments based on the comments provided:

Here is an improved XPath expression that may be more versatile:

//td[starts-with(normalize-space(.), 'Hello world')]

This expression targets <td> elements where the trimmed content begins with "Hello world"

Answer 3

A solution is to utilize the contains() function in your xpath query. Here's an example syntax:

//td[contains(text(),'Hello world')]

Answer 4

A solution is to utilize the contains() function in your xpath query. Here's an example syntax:

//td[contains(text(),'Hello world')]