Unable to make the xpath work with escapes

Question

I am currently using an xpath to check if the id and placeholder match:

I have written this xpath, however I am having issues with escapes. I am not sure how to approach this

self.driver.find_element_by_xpath("//input[@id="searchvalue" and @placeholder="Searched for: L1-Multi-level Combo   contains \'Corporate\General Counsel's Office (GCO)\'"]").click()

This is how my HTML code looks like:

<input type="text" name="searchvalue" id="searchvalue" placeholder="Searched for: L1-Multi-level Combo   contains 'Corporate\General Counsel's Office (GCO)\'" label="Search" title="Searched for: L1-Multi-level Combo   contains 'Corporate\General Counsel's Office (GCO)\'" class="uneditable-inputRight searchtext" onkeypress="if((event&amp;&amp;event.which==13)||(window.event&amp;&amp;window.event.keyCode==13)){quickSearchArcadia(gbappid, false, gbentity);}" onfocus="showSearchOptions()">

Try `'//input[@id="searchvalue" and @placeholder="Searched for: L1-Multi-level Combo contains \'Corporate\General Counsel\'s Office (GCO)\'"]'` — Andersson, Apr 18 '17 at 15:25
@Andersson, it does not work. I have added my HTML code screenshot — user7242550, Apr 18 '17 at 15:40
You could try storing that escaped string as a variable, and then just pass the variable, although I don't thing that's the "correct" solution. — mrfreester, Apr 18 '17 at 17:15
Possible duplicate of [How to escape special characters of a string with single backslashes](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18935754/how-to-escape-special-characters-of-a-string-with-single-backslashes) — JeffC, Apr 18 '17 at 17:26

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 18 '17 at 20:40

Usually using id attribute should be enough to locate required element as it have to be unique value

self.driver.find_element_by_id("searchvalue")

but if you still want to use placeholder attribute also, try below expression:

self.driver.find_element_by_xpath('//input[@id="searchvalue" and @placeholder="Searched for: L1-Multi-level Combo   contains \'Corporate\\General Counsel\'s Office (GCO)\\\'"]')

Unable to make the xpath work with escapes

1 Answers1