CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonselenium-webdriverxpath
Ravi
Ravi

Reputation: 65

xpath returns more than one result, how to handle in python

I have started selenium using python. I am able to change the message text using find_element_by_id. I want to do the same with find_element_by_xpath which is not successful as the xpath has two instances. want to try this out to learn about xpath.

I want to do web scraping of a page using python in which I need clarity on using Xpath mainly needed for going to next page.

#This code works:
import time
import requests
import requests
from selenium import webdriver
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
url = "http://www.seleniumeasy.com/test/basic-first-form-demo.html"
driver.get(url)
eleUserMessage = driver.find_element_by_id("user-message")
eleUserMessage.clear()
eleUserMessage.send_keys("Testing Python")
time.sleep(2)
driver.close()
#This works fine. I wish to do the same with xpath. 
#I inspect the the Input box in chrome, copy the xpath '//*[@id="user-message"]' which seems to refer to the other box as well.
# I wish to use xpath method to write text in this box as follows which does not work.

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
url = "http://www.seleniumeasy.com/test/basic-first-form-demo.html"
driver.get(url)
eleUserMessage = driver.find_elements_by_xpath('//*[@id="user-message"]')
eleUserMessage.clear()
eleUserMessage.send_keys("Test Python")
time.sleep(2)
driver.close()

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1055

Answers (1)

Reedinationer
Reedinationer

Reputation: 5774

To elaborate on my comment you would use a list like this:

eleUserMessage_list = driver.find_elements_by_xpath('//*[@id="user-message"]')
my_desired_element = eleUserMessage_list[0] # or maybe [1]
my_desired_element.clear()
my_desired_element.send_keys("Test Python")
time.sleep(2)

The only real difference between find_elements_by_xpath and find_element_by_xpath is the first option returns a list that needs to be indexed. Once it's indexed, it works the same as if you had run the second option!

Upvotes: 1

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