Selenium says invalid xpath locator

Question

I am trying to get value of HREF attribute but always it says incorrect Xpath.

Html Code :

I am trying code :

     WebElement Link = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//table[contains(@class,'display')]/thead/tbody/tr/td/a"));
     System.out.println(Link.getAttribute("href"));

I tried many xpath but none of them worked.

1) should it not be: //table[contains(@class,'display')]/tbody/tr/td/a? 2) There might be other elements which match that expression, are you sure you've got the right element addressed? 3) Who says incorrect Xpath and how (i.e. any more error details)? 4) Please show use the code, where you try to get value from href attribute. — Würgspaß
– Würgspaß, Commented Jan 20, 2016 at 9:05
I agree with the previous commenters, here is a summary of what they said: stackoverflow.com/help/mcve. — Mathias Müller
– Mathias Müller, Commented Jan 20, 2016 at 9:10
@DmytroPastovenskyi - I can not. But xpath given from Würgspaß worked for me. — Helping Hands
– Helping Hands, Commented Jan 20, 2016 at 9:46
Please note that Stackoverflow requires that a question includes all the necessary information about a problem as text (i.e. not in images). In this case, your question lacks the HTML source document. If you do not add it, it is likely that your question will be closed. — Mathias Müller
– Mathias Müller, Commented Jan 20, 2016 at 9:50

Mathias Müller · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-20 10:29:18Z

2

This should work:

 WebElement Link = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//table[contains(@class,'display')]/tbody/tr/td/a"));

Explanation: tbody is not nested in thead.

Note that a path expression like this can return a set of several nodes, in document order. The findElement method only returns the first result node. So: if the a element you are looking for is no longer the first one in this table, the path expression breaks.

If the the href is unique, something like this would be less error-prone:

 WebElement Link = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//table[contains(@class,'display')]//a[@href='/admin/client/product_overrides/edit/242625']"));

edited Jan 20, 2016 at 10:29

Mathias Müller

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answered Jan 20, 2016 at 9:58

Würgspaß

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3 Comments

Mathias Müller Over a year ago

How does the first expression depend on the order of rows? As I see it, you meant to say that the first expression depends on the implicit assumption that the first node in the result set will be the wanted one, since findElement only returns the first result.

Würgspaß Over a year ago

@MathiasMüller Yes, that's what I meant. If the page code changes and some other a element happens to be the first one to appear in the table body, the test might fail. Feel free to edit the answer, to point it out.

Mathias Müller Over a year ago

Edited with your permission - and upvoted without your permission :-).

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