Vfrdtyky

I am testing a web app using selenium and java. I've always avoided xpath like it was a disease. Unfortunately, I got stuck on a stubborn web element buried deep inside a table unfortunately with no id or class. I tried everything and even invited my great great grand parents but nay...nothing worked, except xpath...see below.

I tried: className, name, cssSelector e.t.c. with e.g.

driver.findElement(By.className("kujes")).click();

This is what worked.

driver.findElement(By.xpath("/html/body/div[7]/div[3]/div/div[2]/div[1]/div[2]/div/div/div/div/div[2]/div/div[1]/div/div/div[6]/div/div[2]/div[2]/div/table/tbody/tr[1]/td[3]")).click();

I do not want anything less than professional in my work.
So, my questions are is xpath reliable and a good practice?
Is it professional to use xpath?

driver.findElement(By.xpath("/html/body/div[7]/div[3]/div/div[2]/div[1]/div[2]/div/div/div/div/div[2]/div/div[1]/div/div/div[6]/div/div[2]/div[2]/div/table/tbody/tr[1]/td[3]")).click();

The above approach is very very bad practice.

Never use indexes in your xpath. It becomes very fragile and will break every single time even when there is a small change in the target application. Try to ask the developers to add ID to that object.

It depends on the cases. Ultimate goal is to find selector which is unique and never changing until big change happens.

First you can try with id or class name which are unique.

Then we can play with css selector to find,

• Element with attribute, classname , id and combination.


• Element which is child of another element,


• Element which is next sibling of another element.

You are using absolute xpath, which is unreadable and changing one. Using absolute xpath is completely unprofessional.

driver.findElement(By.xpath("/html/body/div[7]/div[3]/div/div[2]/div[1]/div[2]/div/div/div/div/div[2]/div/div[1]/div/div/div[6]/div/div[2]/div[2]/div/table/tbody/tr[1]/td[3]")).click()

You can use relative xpath

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//table[@id='somevalue']//td[text() = 'Name']]/preceding-sibling::td")).click()

There are few cases which are possible only with XPath in selenium

• Finding parent element of an element


• Finding preceding sibling of an element


• Finding an element with innerText


• Finding nth element of the locator

The above cases are not possible with css selector and xpath is the only straight forward way to find those element.You can also achieve these indirectly with jquery selector and javascript executor.