How to find an element using text through Selenium C#

Question

I have the following html:

<p class="k-reset"><a class="k-icon k-i-expand" href="#" tabindex="-1"></a>Unit: QA Room: 1</p>

I can't seem to get valid syntax to click on this element. I've tried the following:

IWebElement webElement5 = Driver.Instance.FindElement(By.XPath("//a[@class='k-icon k-i-expand']"));
webElement5.Click();

IWebElement webElement5 = Driver.Instance.FindElement(By.XPath("//p[text(), 'Unit: QA Room: 1']"));
webElement5.Click();

When I try to use the text(), I get an error stating that it is not a valid XPath expression. Everywhere I look on the internet uses that syntax. I'm very new to c#/Selenium/XPath values. Any help is very much appreciated.

The syntax is not correct. If you want text equals then you want //p[.='Unit: QA Room: 1']. If you want text contains then you want //p[contains(., 'Unit: QA Room: 1')]. You seem to be mixing the two... replace the , with a = and it should be valid. — JeffC
– JeffC, Commented Mar 14, 2019 at 15:32

Guy · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-14 14:11:18Z

2

You mixed partial syntax of contains

"//p[contains(text(), 'Unit: QA Room: 1')]"

For direct match use =

"//p[text()='Unit: QA Room: 1']"

answered Mar 14, 2019 at 14:11

Guy

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2 Comments

Alejandro Over a year ago

Do note that //p[text(), 'Unit: QA Room: 1'] is valid XPath 2.0. This will select every p element because the truth value of a sequence is false only when it's empty.

Guy Over a year ago

@Alejandro The browsers support by default xpath 1.0, you can test it in dev tools, therefor so is Selenium. That's why the OP got invalid syntax error.

undetected Selenium · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-14 15:13:35Z

0

To click on the element you can use either of the following solution:

CssSelector:

Driver.Instance.FindElement(By.CssSelector("p.k-reset>a.k-icon.k-i-expand")).Click();

XPath 1:

Driver.Instance.FindElement(By.XPath("//p[@class='k-reset']/a[@class='k-icon k-i-expand']")).Click();

XPath 2:

Driver.Instance.FindElement(By.XPath("//p[@class='k-reset' and normalize-space()='Unit: QA Room: 1']")).Click();

answered Mar 14, 2019 at 15:13

undetected Selenium

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