XPath for element by attribute value in Selenium?

Question

For the following HTML:

Why does the following XPath doesn't work:

//option[value='0']

Is it related to value or to option element?

Next time, please post text, formatted as code, not an image of your markup. Thanks. — kjhughes, Feb 03 '22 at 16:54

undetected Selenium · Answer 1 · 2022-02-03T16:48:34.653

3

//option[value='0']

is not a valid selector incase you are attempting to identify/select the respective <option> element using Selenium.

Solution

You can use either of the Locator Strategies:

xpath:
```
//option[@value='0']
```
css_selector:
```
option[value='0']
```

tl; dr

Why should I ever use CSS selectors as opposed to XPath for automated testing?

edited Feb 03 '22 at 16:48

answered Feb 03 '22 at 16:39

undetected Selenium

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Nice answer. Readers shouldn't miss the excellent supporting links too. – kjhughes Feb 03 '22 at 17:04

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 03 '22 at 17:05

2

Change

//option[value='0']

to

//option[@value='0']

because value is an attribute, not an element.

edited Feb 03 '22 at 17:05

undetected Selenium

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answered Feb 03 '22 at 16:33

kjhughes

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score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 03 '22 at 16:57

1

Your current xpath is searching for an option element with a child element value which in turn has contents 0. What you actually want to find is an option element with an attribute value with value 0:

//option[@value='0']

edited Feb 03 '22 at 16:57

kjhughes

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answered Feb 03 '22 at 16:33

AakashM

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I thought that in order to search for a child i should use **/** – Eitanos30 Feb 03 '22 at 16:42
@Eitanos30: AakashM (+1) (and all answerers, in fact) have explained that `value` selects a child ***element***; `@value` selects an ***attribute***. Your markup has `value` as an attribute, so use `@`. – kjhughes Feb 03 '22 at 16:57

XPath for element by attribute value in Selenium?

3 Answers3

Solution

tl; dr