How to pass variable inside find_element_by_css_selector method in Selenium , Python

Question

I need to do some changes in below line :

driver.find_element_by_css_selector("p[title=\"sanityapp5\"]").click()

Now I have create a string variable appname

appname="sanityapp5"

Now I want to know how to replace sanityapp5 with variable appname in above selenium command. I am new to python so do know how to do this.

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 03 '14 at 04:55

1

driver.find_element_by_css_selector("p[title=\"%s\"]" % appname).click()

or using the newer style string formatting:

driver.find_element_by_css_selector("p[title=\{}\"]".format(appname)).click()

edited Sep 03 '14 at 04:55

kylieCatt

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answered Sep 03 '14 at 04:50

wRAR

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how to provide the variable if it is delcared in one python file. Importing that and using inside function – user2439278 Sep 03 '14 at 12:51
Is this correct driver.find_element_by_css_selector("p[title=\"{0}\"]".format(config.appname)).click() – user2439278 Sep 03 '14 at 12:51
while providing above line, it throws invalid element state error – user2439278 Sep 04 '14 at 05:21

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:26

Let's do it in a more Pythonic way. Use format function.

Python 2.7.6 (default, Mar 22 2014, 22:59:56) 
[GCC 4.8.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> "hello world{}".format("end")
'hello worldend'
>>> "hello world {1} and {0}".format("a", "b")
'hello world b and a'
>>>

And it is in your case

driver.find_element_by_css_selector("p[title=\"{0}\"]".format(appname)).click()
>>> appname="sanityapp5"
>>> "p[title=\"{0}\"]".format(appname)
'p[title="sanityapp5"]'

Few reasons why you prefer format to percentage.

How to pass variable inside find_element_by_css_selector method in Selenium , Python

2 Answers2