Chrome xpath expression for selenium does not find element

Question

In a webpage I have the following elements:

....
<select class="widget-listbox form-control" size="6" multiple="multiple">
    <option data-value="sIPSCs%20from%20juvenile%20(P21-30)%20C57BL%2F6J%20male%20mice%20hippocampus%20CA1%20pyramidal%20cell%20(A1)" value="sIPSCs from juvenile (P21-30) C57BL/6J male mice hippocampus CA1 pyramidal cell (A1)" class="">sIPSCs&nbsp;from&nbsp;juvenile&nbsp;(P21-30)&nbsp;C57BL/6J&nbsp;male&nbsp;mice&nbsp;hippocampus&nbsp;CA1&nbsp;pyramidal&nbsp;cell&nbsp;(A1)</option>
    <option data-value="sIPSCs%20from%20juvenile%20(P21-30)%20C57BL%2F6J%20male%20mice%20hippocampus%20CA1%20pyramidal%20cell%20(A2)" value="sIPSCs from juvenile (P21-30) C57BL/6J male mice hippocampus CA1 pyramidal cell (A2)" class="">sIPSCs&nbsp;from&nbsp;juvenile&nbsp;(P21-30)&nbsp;C57BL/6J&nbsp;male&nbsp;mice&nbsp;hippocampus&nbsp;CA1&nbsp;pyramidal&nbsp;cell&nbsp;(A2)</option>
</select>
....

and I am trying the following xpath expression to select the first options element (for a selenium test):

//option[contains(text(),"sIPSC")]
//option[text()="sIPSCs from juvenile (P21-30) C57BL/6J male mice hippocampus CA1 pyramidal cell (A1)"]
//option[@value="sIPSCs from juvenile (P21-30) C57BL/6J male mice hippocampus CA1 pyramidal cell (A1)"]
//select/option[contains(text(),"sIPSC")]
//select/option[text()="sIPSCs from juvenile (P21-30) C57BL/6J male mice hippocampus CA1 pyramidal cell (A1)"]
//select/option[@value="sIPSCs from juvenile (P21-30) C57BL/6J male mice hippocampus CA1 pyramidal cell (A1)"]

but none shows any results (in chrome, XPath Helper Version 2.02; chrome version 70.0.3538.110). The element I look for is not inside a frame. I also want to select the whole string "sIPSCs from juvenile (P21-30) C57BL/6J male mice hippocampus CA1 pyramidal cell (A1)" which might be a variable. Just any string. I do not know beforehand how this string looks like...

What am I doing wrong this time? Shouldn't any of the above expressions work?

At least first one should work. Did you switch to frame? Show your code — Andersson
– Andersson, Commented Dec 3, 2018 at 17:59

undetected Selenium · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-03 20:24:27Z

2

To select the first option as the desired element are React element you need to induce WebDriverWait for the element to be clickable and you can use either of the following (Pythonic) solutions:

XPath 1:

WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//select[@class='widget-listbox form-control']/option[contains(@data-value,'(A1)')]"))).click()

XPath 2:

WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//select[@class='widget-listbox form-control']/option[contains(@value,'(A1)')]"))).click()

XPath 3:

WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//select[@class='widget-listbox form-control']/option[contains(.,'(A1)')]"))).click()

Note : You have to add the following imports :

from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

answered Dec 3, 2018 at 20:24

undetected Selenium

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1 Comment

Alex Over a year ago

No sorry, I want to select the element with the following complete string: "sIPSCs from juvenile (P21-30) C57BL/6J male mice hippocampus CA1 pyramidal cell (A1)" not just parts of it. Maybe I do not know that string beforehand...

bjones01001101 · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-05 14:00:56Z

0

Looks like both options contain "sIPSC"

Try an xpath that identifies what is unique about the element, like this: //option[contains(text(),"sIPSC")][contains(text(),"A1")]

If you will always want the first option: //select/option[contains(text(),"sIPSC")][1]

edited Dec 5, 2018 at 14:00

answered Dec 3, 2018 at 22:17

bjones01001101

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1 Comment

Alex Over a year ago

No sorry, I want to select the element with the following complete string: "sIPSCs from juvenile (P21-30) C57BL/6J male mice hippocampus CA1 pyramidal cell (A1)" not just parts of it. Maybe I do not know that string beforehand...

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