Locating multiple elements in Selenium Python

Locators Strategies in Selenium Python are methods that are used to locate single or multiple elements from the page and perform operations on the same. Selenium’s Python Module is built to perform automated testing with Python. Selenium Python bindings provide a simple API to write functional/acceptance tests using Selenium WebDriver. After one has installed selenium and checked out – Navigating links using get method, one might want to play more with Selenium Python. After opening page using selenium such as neveropen, one might want to click some buttons automatically or fill a form automatically or any such automated task. This article revolves around Locating multiple elements in Selenium Python.

Locator Strategies to locate multiple elements

Selenium Python follows different locating strategies for elements. One can locate multiple elements in 7 different ways. Here is a list of locating strategies for Selenium in python – 

find_elements(By.NAME)

With this strategy, all elements with the name attribute value matching the location will be returned. If no element has a matching name attribute, a NoSuchElementException will be raised. 

Syntax:

driver.find_elements(By.NAME, "name_of_element")

Example: For instance, consider this page source: 

Now after you have created a driver, you can grab elements using –

elements = driver.find_elements(By.NAME,'username')

To check practical Implementation, visit – find_elements_by_name() driver method – Selenium Python

Note: command find_elements_by_name() is deprecated 

find_elements(By.XPATH)

With this strategy, all elements with pattern of xpath matching the location will be returned. If no element has a matching element attribute, a NoSuchElementException will be raised. 

Syntax: 

driver.find_elements(By.XPATH, "xpath")

Example – For instance, consider this page source: 

Now after you have created a driver, you can grab elements using –

login_form = driver.find_elements(By.XPATH, "/html/body/form[1]")
login_form = driver.find_elements(By.XPATH, "//form[1]")

To check Practical Implementation, visit – find_elements_by_xpath() driver method – Selenium Python

Note: command find_elements_by_xpath() is deprecated

find_elements(By.LINK_TEXT)

With this strategy, all elements with the link text value matching the location will be returned. If no element has a matching link text attribute, a NoSuchElementException will be raised. 

Syntax: 

driver.find_elements(By.LINK_TEXT, "Text of Link")

Example – For instance, consider this page source: 

Now after you have created a driver, you can grab elements using –

login_form = driver.find_elements(By.LINK_TEXT, 'Continue')

To check practical Implementation, visit – find_elements_by_link_text() driver method – Selenium Python

Note- command find_elements_by_link_text() is deprecated

find_elements(By.PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT)

With this strategy, all elements with the partial link text value matching the location will be returned. If no element has a matching partial link text attribute, a NoSuchElementException will be raised. Syntax – 

driver.find_elements(By.PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT, "Text of Link")

Example – For instance, consider this page source: 

Now after you have created a driver, you can grab all elements using –

login_form = driver.find_elements(By.PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT , 'Conti')

To check practical implementation, visit – find_elements_by_partial_link_text() driver method – Selenium Python

Note: command find_elements_by_partial_link_text() is deprecated

find_elements(By.TAG_NAME)

With this strategy, all elements with the given tag name will be returned. If no element has a matching tag name, a NoSuchElementException will be raised. Syntax – 

driver.find_elements(By.TAG_NAME, "Tag name")

Example: For instance, consider this page source: 

Now after you have created a driver, you can grab all elements using –

login_form = driver.find_elements(By.TAG_NAME, 'h1')

To check practical Implementation, visit – find_elements_by_tag_name() driver method – Selenium Python

Note: command find_elements_by_partial_tag_name() is deprecated

find_elements(By.CLASS_NAME)

With this strategy, the first element with the matching class attribute name will be returned. If no element has a matching class attribute name, a NoSuchElementException will be raised. 

Syntax: 

driver.find_elements(By.CLASS_NAME,"class_of_element")

Example – For instance, consider this page source: 

Now after you have created a driver, you can grab all elements using –

content = driver.find_elements(By.CLASS_NAME, 'content')

To check practical Implementation, visit – find_elements_by_class_name() driver method – Selenium Python

Note: command find_elements_by_class_name() is deprecated

find_elements(By.CSS_SELECTOR)

With this strategy, all elements with the matching CSS selector will be returned. If no element has a matching CSS selector, a NoSuchElementException will be raised. 

Syntax: 

driver.find_elements(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "CSS Selectors")

Example – For instance, consider this page source: 

Now after you have created a driver, you can grab all elements using –

content = driver.find_elements(By.CSS_SELECTOR, 'p.content')

To check practical implementation, visit – find_elements_by_css_selector() driver method – Selenium Python

Note: command find_elements_by_css_selector() is deprecated