Locator Syntax

Identifies objects that are descendants of the current object.

The example identifies hyperlinks on a web page.

Identifies objects that are direct children of the current object. Objects located on lower hierarchy levels are not recognized.

The example identifies hyperlinks on a web page that are direct children of the current object.

Example 1: //a[@textContents='Home']

Example 2: //div[@textContents='Price: * USD']

Identifies objects by a specific attribute. You can use the wildcards * and ?in the attribute value.

Example 1 identifies hyperlinks with the text Home, Example 2 uses a wild card to identify a div with a price.

Example 1: //a[3]

Example 2: //a[@textContents='Home'][2]

Identifies a specific occurrence of an object if there are multiple ones. Indices are 1-based in locators.

Example 1 identifies the third hyperlink and Example 2 identifies the second hyperlink with the text Home.

• and
• or
• not
• =
• !=

Example 1: //a[@textContents='Remove' or @textContents='Delete']

Example 2: //a[@textContents!='Remove']

Example 3: //a[not(@textContents='Delete' or @id='lnkDelete') and @href='*/delete']

Identifies objects by using logical operators to combine attributes.

Example 1 identifies hyperlinks that either have the caption Remove or Delete, Example 2 identifies hyperlinks with a text that is not Remove, and Example 3 shows how to combine different logical operators.

Example 1: //input[@id='username']/ancestor::form

Example 2: //input[@id='username']/ancestor::div[@className='container']

Identifies ancestors, for example parent, grandparent, and so on, of an object.

Example 1 finds the form element that has a child input element with the identifier username, Example 2 finds the div with the class name container that has a has a child input element with the identifier username.

Example 1: //input[@id='username']/ancestor::form

Example 2: //input[@id='username']/ancestor::div[@className='container']

Identifies the parent of an object.

Example 1 identifies the parent of the hyperlink with the text Edit and Example 2 identifies a hyperlink with the text Delete that has a sibling hyperlink with the text Edit.

Example: //td[@textContents='John']/following-sibling::td[2]

Identifies siblings after the current object.

The example identifies the table cell which is located two cells to the right of the table cell with the text John.

Example: //td[@textContents='John']/preceding-sibling::td[2]

Identifies siblings before the current object.

The example identifies the table cell which is located two cells to the left of the table cell with the text John.

Example 1: //*[@textContents='Home']

Example 2: /*/a

Identifies objects without considering their types, like hyperlink, text field, or button.

Example 1 identifies objects with the given text content, regardless of their type, and Example 2 identifies hyperlinks that are second-level descendants of the current object.

//a[@id = 'abc'] [@textContents = '123']

(use //a [@id = 'abc' and @textContents = '123'] instead)

(use //*[@id = 'abc'] instead)

"//*//a[@id='abc']"