Find element by attribute

Question

I am trying to find an element with Attribute. Well, I can find elements with Id, tagName, Xpath and all other predefined methods in Selenium. But, I am trying to write a method that specifically returns WebElement, given Attribute name and Value as input.

List<WebElement> elements = webDriver.findElements(By.tagName("Attribute Name"));
for(WebElement element : elements){
    if(element.getText().equals("Value of Particular Attribute")){
        return element;
    }
    else{
        return null;
    }
}

Assuming XPath is not an option, is there any other better ways to do this?

Could you add an HTML example of what you're trying to match? — Richard, Oct 10 '14 at 16:48
Your question seems to be about matching attribute, but your example is matching the text of the element, nothing to do with attributes. — Richard, Oct 10 '14 at 16:48
Well, This application will sometimes be used by non developers, and if they can't trace out XPath, I need them to use any of the attributes available for particular element. I already had working versions of find by - Id, CSS, tagName, XPath and all. And let's say we need to find an Image with attribute and value as , and assuming there are no Id, class name etc mentioned (I am trying to figure out on worst cases), How to get element with just href and url? — Kishore Banala, Oct 10 '14 at 18:01
I believe that "Assuming XPath is not an option" is a valid assumption. It's very frequent that the answers criticize the question **and actually don't answer it**. It's like when you try to buy a warm jacket during the summer and the sales person questions why you're doing that and tries to sell you a thin T-shirt. Usually, you feel you don't need to explain your life or your reasons and just need a warm jacket. Are you buying from this person? In short: I believe that first we have to respect the person who's asking, try to answer the question, and only then offer other options. — Almir Campos, Mar 17 '19 at 17:10

score 112 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 01 '23 at 22:20

112

You can easily accomplish this task with CSS.

The formula is:

element[attribute='attribute-value']

So if you have,

<a href="mysite.com"></a>

You can find it using:

By.cssSelector("a[href='mysite.com']");

this works using any attribute possible.

This page here gives good information on how to formulate effective css selectors, and matching their attributes: http://ddavison.io/css/2014/02/18/effective-css-selectors.html

edited Jun 01 '23 at 22:20

Benjamin Loison

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answered Oct 10 '14 at 18:55

ddavison

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element[attribute='attribute-value'] working as intended, thanks! – Harvey Lin Jan 26 '18 at 19:54

score 38 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 10 '14 at 16:59

38

I do not understand your requirement:

Assuming XPath is not an option ...

If this was just an incorrect assumption on your part, then XPath is the perfect option!

webDriver.findElements(By.xpath("//element[@attribute='value']"))

Of course you need to replace element, attribute, and value with your actual names. You can also find "any element" by using the wildcard:

webDriver.findElements(By.xpath("//*[@attribute='value']"))

answered Oct 10 '14 at 16:59

SiKing

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Downvoted because the question declared explicitly that "Xpath is not an option". So, the answer doesn't match the question's requirement. – Almir Campos Mar 17 '19 at 17:13
5

@AlmirCampos nevertheless, I find the answer useful. I ask myself: does this answer help me, and will it help others on SO? For me, the answer is 'yes'. – Holf Sep 06 '19 at 15:36
Worked for non-standard element and was exactly what I didn't know I needed: `const arasUserMenuDD = await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//aras-dropdown[@data-id='com.aras.innovator.cui_default.mwh_user_menu']"`));` – Neil Gaetano Lindberg Apr 16 '20 at 18:44

score 17 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 10 '14 at 16:49

17

Use CSS selectors instead:

List<WebElement> elements = webDriver.findElements(By.cssSelector("*[attributeName='value']"));

Edit: CSS selectors instead of XPath

answered Oct 10 '14 at 16:49

Sizik

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 15 '20 at 22:07

As per the documentation:

By.id Locates elements by the ID attribute. This locator uses the CSS selector *[id='$ID'], not document.getElementById. Where id is the ID to search

so you can use the below code to search the DOM element with any given attribute as ID and value

By.id("element[attribute='attribute-value']");

Find element by attribute

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