How to get text with Selenium WebDriver in Python

Question

I'm trying to get text using Selenium WebDriver and here is my code. Please note that I don't want to use XPath, because in my case the ID gets changed on every relaunch of the web page.

My code:

text = driver.find_element_by_class_name("current-stage").getText("my text")

HTML:

<span class="current-text" id="yui_3_7_0_4_1389185744113_384">my text</span>

How can I fix this?

Answer 1

You want just .text.

You can then verify it after you've got it, don't attempt to pass in what you expect it should have.

Answer 2

Python

element.text

Java

element.getText()

C#

element.Text

Ruby

element.text

Answer 3

To print the text my text you can use either of the following Locator Strategies:

• Using class_name and get_attribute("textContent"):

  print(driver.find_element(By.CLASS_NAME, "current-stage").get_attribute("textContent"))
  

• Using css_selector and get_attribute("innerHTML"):

  print(driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "span.current-stage").get_attribute("innerHTML"))
  

• Using xpath and text attribute:

  print(driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//span[@class='current-stage']").text)
  

---

Ideally you need to induce WebDriverWait for the visibility_of_element_located() and you can use either of the following Locator Strategies:

• Using CLASS_NAME and get_attribute("textContent"):

  print(WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.CLASS_NAME, "current-stage"))).get_attribute("textContent"))
  

• Using CSS_SELECTOR and text attribute:

  print(WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "span.current-stage"))).text)
  

• Using XPATH and get_attribute("innerHTML"):

  print(WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.XPATH, "//span[@class='current-stage']"))).get_attribute("innerHTML"))
  

• 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
  

You can find a relevant discussion in How to retrieve the text of a WebElement using Selenium - Python

---

References

Link to useful documentation:

• get_attribute() method Gets the given attribute or property of the element.
• text attribute returns The text of the element.
• Difference between text and innerHTML using Selenium

Answer 4

The answer is:

driver.find_element_by_class_name("ctsymbol").text

Answer 5

You can use:

element = driver.find_element_by_class_name("class_name").text

This will return the text within the element and will allow you to verify it after that.

Answer 6

This is the correct answer. It worked!!

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait

driver = webdriver.Chrome("E:\\Python\\selenium\\webdriver\\chromedriver.exe")
driver.get("https://www.tatacliq.com/global-desi-navy-embroidered-kurta/p-mp000000000876745")
driver.set_page_load_timeout(45)
driver.maximize_window()
driver.implicitly_wait(2)
driver.get_screenshot_as_file("E:\\Python\\Tatacliq.png")
print ("Executed Successfully")
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//div[@class='pdp-promo-title pdp-title']").click()
SpecialPrice = driver.find_element_by_xpath("//div[@class='pdp-promo-title pdp-title']").text
print(SpecialPrice)

Answer 7

A heads up for anyone finding this thread after the Selenium 4 update. The driver.find_element_by_* has been deprecated and using it will give a "deprecationwarning". The replacement method is: driver.find_element(By.X,"name") Please look up Selenium 4 info.

Answer 8

I've found this absolutely invaluable when unable to grab something in a custom class or changing id's:

driver.find_element_by_xpath("//*[contains(text(), 'Show Next Date Available')]").click()
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//*[contains(text(), 'Show Next Date Available')]").text
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//*[contains(text(), 'Available')]").text
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//*[contains(text(), 'Avail')]").text

Answer 9

to get a text from the element:

url=driv.find_element(By.whatDoYouWant, "ClassNameOrwhatDoYouWant").text
print(url)

ex:

url = web.find_element(By.TAG_NAME, "a").text
print(url)

to get a text from the elements:

ex:

for i in range(6):
    var = web.find_elements(By.TAG_NAME, "input")[i].text
    print(var)