What does contains(., 'some text') refers to within xpath used in Selenium

Question

I am new to selenium coding, and I am seeing several xpaths that contain (.,'followed by something') what does the ., refer to?

Answer 1

The . character within the xpath is the short form of text()

As an example if an WebElement is represented within the DOM Tree as:

<span>Use this payment method</span>

Effective Locator Strategies will be:

• xpath 1:

  //span[text()='Use this payment method']
  

• xpath 2:

  //span[contains(., 'Use this payment method')]
  

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Reference

You can find a couple of relevant discussions in:

• How to locate the button element using Selenium through Python
• While fetching all links,Ignore logout link from the loop and continue navigation in selenium java
• How does dot(.) in xpath to take multiple form in identifying an element and matching a text