Xpath | Selenium Uses - Part I

XPath, XML Path Language is a W3C standard that is used to navigate through elements and attributes in an XML document.


XPath Functions


     1| Conversion

               boolean( [object] )

               string( [object] )

               number( [object] )

     2| Math

               ceiling( number ) 

               floor( number )

               round( decimal )

               sum( node-set )

     3| Logic

               true()

               false()

               not( expr )

     4| Node

               lang(string)

               name([node-set])

               namespace-uri([node-set])

     5| Context

               count(node-set)

               last()

               position()

     6| String

               contains( haystack-string needle-string )

               concat( string1 string2 [stringn]* )

               normalize-space( string )

               starts-with(haystack needle) 

               string-length( [string] )

               substring(string start [length]) 

               substring-after(haystack needle) 

               substring-before(haystack needle)

               translate( string abc XYZ)

Both the Xpath Context and Xpath String are used for locating elements and does various functions on Selenium. The Functions mentioned below are based on the following URL, http://docs.python.org/2/library/re.html

Note|
For normalize-space() use the following link http://www.bing.com/search?q=asd+++asd&go=&qs=n&form=QBRE&filt=all&pq=asd+asd&sc=8-7&sp=-1&sk=

XPath Context

    count()

    //span[count(*)]
    //p[count(tt)]
    //*[count(*)]
    //dl[count(dt)]
    //div[count(dl)]
    /* all tables with 1 row and 2 cols e.g., //table[count(tr)=1 and count(tr/td)=2] */
    //div[count(dl)=1 and count(dl/dd)=1]

    last()

    //div[@id='module-contents']/dl[@class='function'][last()]
    //div[@id='module-contents']/dl[@class='function'][last()-1]

    position()

    //div[@id='module-contents']/dl[@class='function'][position()=4]    
    //div[@class='button' and position()=2]     Link
    //div[@class='button'][position()=2]

XPath String

    contains()

    //div[contains(@id,'module')]
    //*[@id='regular-expression-syntax']//h2[contains(text(), '7.2.1. Regular Expression Syntax')]

    concat()

    concat(//*[@id='checking-for-a-pair']/h3/text(), //*[@id='simulating-scanf']/h3/text())

    normalize-space()

    //*[@id='sb_form_q'][normalize-space(@value)='asd asd']    

    starts-with()

    //div[starts-with(@id,'module')]

    string-length()

     The string-length returns the number of characters in the string
     string-length(//*[@id='regular-expression-syntax']/h2/text())

    substring()

     substring(//*[@id='regular-expression-syntax']/h2/text(), 2, 30)

    substring-after()

    //div[substring-after(@id,'finding-')]
    //*[starts-with(@id,'finding') and substring-after(@id,'finding-all-adverbs-')]

    substring-before()

    //div[substring-before(@id,'objects')]

    translate()

    //*[@id='raw-string-notation']/h3[contains(translate(., '7.2.5.8. Raw String Notation', '7.2.5.8. RAW STRING NOTATION'), '7.2.5.8. RAW STRING NOTATION')]
    //*[@id='raw-string-notation']/h3[contains(translate(., 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'), '7.2.5.8. RAW STRING NOTATION')]