Why is getText() in Selenium not working for elements, but getAttribute("value") is?</a></h1> </div> <div class="grid fw-wrap pb8 mb16 bb bc-black-075"> <div class="grid--cell ws-nowrap mr16 mb8" title="2016-01-12 19:07:53Z"> <span class="fc-light mr2">Asked</span> <time itemprop="dateCreated" datetime="2015-09-03T15:19:15.310" class="fromnow">Sep 03 '15 at 15:19</time> </div> <div class="grid--cell ws-nowrap mr16 mb8"> <span class="fc-light mr2">Active</span> <time class="fromnow" title="2021-04-29T15:12:11.807" datetime="2021-04-29T15:12:11.807">Apr 29 '21 at 15:12</a> </div> <div class="grid--cell ws-nowrap mb8" title="Viewed 7,144 times"> <span class="fc-light mr2">Viewed</span> 7,144 times </div> </div> <div id="mainbar" role="main" aria-label="questions and answers"> <div id="question" class="question" data-questionid="32379622" data-ownerid="1943133" data-score="5"> <div class="post-layout"> <div class="votecell post-layout--left"> <div class="js-voting-container grid jc-center fd-column ai-stretch gs4 fc-black-200" data-post-id="32379622"> <button class="js-vote-up-btn grid--cell s-btn s-btnunset c-pointer"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="m0 svg-icon iconArrowUpLg" width="36" height="36" viewBox="0 0 36 36"><path d="M2 26h32L18 10 2 26z"></path></svg></button> <div class="js-vote-count grid--cell fc-black-500 fs-title grid fd-column ai-center" itemprop="upvoteCount" data-value="5">5</div> <button class="js-bookmark-btn s-btn s-btnunset c-pointer py4"> <svg aria-hidden="true" class="svg-icon iconBookmark" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 18 18"><path d="M6 1a2 2 0 00-2 2v14l5-4 5 4V3a2 2 0 00-2-2H6zm3.9 3.83h2.9l-2.35 1.7.9 2.77L9 7.59l-2.35 1.7.9-2.76-2.35-1.7h2.9L9 2.06l.9 2.77z"></path></svg> <div class="js-bookmark-count mt4" data-value="0">0</div> </button> </div> </div> <div class="postcell post-layout--right"> <div class="s-prose js-post-body" itemprop="text"><p>Given you have some HTML with a textarea element and want to get its text via Selenium (here Java-binding).</p> <pre><code><textarea name="txtComment" id="txtComment" rows="2" cols="20"> Some comment inside the textarea </textarea> </code></pre> <br/> <p>This is how I see the code via developer tools (Internet Explorer and Firefox), so it seems like it is a normal text-node and not inside the "value" attribute of the element.</p> <p>Why is it then that <strong>getText() does not work</strong>:</p> <pre><code>driver.findElement(By.id("txtComment")).getText(); </code></pre> <p>It only <em>returns an empty String</em>.</p> <p><em>But</em> using <strong>getAttribute("value") works</strong> and results in returning the expected string:</p> <pre><code>driver.findElement(By.id("txtComment")).getAttribute("value"); </code></pre> <p>This <em>returns "Some comment inside the textarea" as expected</em></p> <p>This is rather surprising since the Selenium documentation about <a class="external-link" href="https://selenium.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/docs/api/java/org/openqa/selenium/WebElement.html#getText%28%29" rel="nofollow noreferrer">getText()</a> says the following:</p> <blockquote> <p>Get the visible (i.e. not hidden by CSS) innerText of this element, including sub-elements, without any leading or trailing whitespace.</p> <p>Returns: The innerText of this element.</p> </blockquote> <p>As the HTML code in the beginning shows, the text-part of the element is visible and it is the "innerText", isn't it?</p> <h3>Can someone shed light on where I'm wrong or if I'm not, why is this implemented like this in Selenium?</h3></div> <div class="mt24 mb12"> <div class="post-taglist grid gs4 gsy fd-column"> <div class="grid ps-relative"> <a href="../../questions/tagged/java" class="post-tag js-gps-track" title="show questions tagged 'java'" rel="tag">java</a> <a href="../../questions/tagged/html" class="post-tag js-gps-track" title="show questions tagged 'html'" rel="tag">html</a> <a href="../../questions/tagged/selenium" class="post-tag js-gps-track" title="show questions tagged 'selenium'" rel="tag">selenium</a> <a href="../../questions/tagged/selenium-webdriver" class="post-tag js-gps-track" title="show questions tagged 'selenium-webdriver'" rel="tag">selenium-webdriver</a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="mb0"> <div class="mt16 grid gs8 gsy fw-wrap jc-end ai-start pt4 mb16"> <div class="grid--cell mr16 fl1 w96"></div> <div class="post-signature grid--cell"> <div class="s-user-card s-user-card"> <time class="s-user-card--time" datetime="edited Nov 22 '20 at 07:55">edited Nov 22 '20 at 07:55</time> <a href="../../users/63550/peter-mortensen" class="s-avatar s-avatar32 s-user-card--avatar"> <img class="s-avatar--image" src="../../users/profiles/63550.webp" data-jdenticon-width="32" data-jdenticon-height="32" data-jdenticon-value="Peter Mortensen" /> </a> <div class="s-user-card--info"> <a href="../../users/63550/peter-mortensen" class="s-user-card--link">Peter Mortensen</a> <ul class="s-user-card--awards"> <li class="s-user-card--rep" title="reputation score">30,738</li> <li class="s-award-bling s-award-blinggold" title="21 gold badges">21</li> <li class="s-award-bling s-award-blingsilver" title="105 silver badges">105</li> <li class="s-award-bling s-award-blingbronze" title="131 bronze badges">131</li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-signature owner grid--cell"> <div class="s-user-card s-user-card"> <time class="s-user-card--time" datetime="asked Sep 03 '15 at 15:19">asked Sep 03 '15 at 15:19</time> <a href="../../users/1943133/drkthng" class="s-avatar s-avatar32 s-user-card--avatar"> <img class="s-avatar--image" src="../../users/profiles/1943133.webp" data-jdenticon-width="32" data-jdenticon-height="32" data-jdenticon-value="drkthng" /> </a> <div class="s-user-card--info"> <a href="../../users/1943133/drkthng" class="s-user-card--link">drkthng</a> <ul class="s-user-card--awards"> <li class="s-user-card--rep" title="reputation score">6,651</li> <li class="s-award-bling s-award-blinggold" title="7 gold badges">7</li> <li class="s-award-bling s-award-blingsilver" title="33 silver badges">33</li> <li class="s-award-bling s-award-blingbronze" title="53 bronze badges">53</li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-layout--right js-post-comments-component"> <div id="comments-32379622" class="comments js-comments-container bt bc-black-075 mt12 " data-post-id="32379622" data-min-length="15"> <ul class="comments-list js-comments-list" data-remaining-comments-count="0" data-canpost="false" data-cansee="true" data-comments-unavailable="false" data-addlink-disabled="true"> <li id="comment-52629808" class="comment js-comment " data-comment-id="52629808" data-comment-owner-id="4306793" data-comment-score="4"> <div class="js-comment-actions comment-actions"> <div class="comment-score js-comment-edit-hide"> <span title="number of 'useful comment' votes received" class="warm">4</span> </div> </div> <div class="comment-text js-comment-text-and-form"> <a name="comment52629808_32379622"></a> <div class="comment-body js-comment-edit-hide"> <span class="comment-copy">Because getText returns a text node. Input and textarea element text is stored in the value attribute so you need to retrieve the "value" attribute's data.</span> – <a href="../../users/4306793/tai-kwangi-chicken" title="613 reputation" class="comment-user ">Tai Kwangi Chicken</a> <span class="comment-date" dir="ltr"><a class="comment-link" href="../../questions/32379622/why-is-gettext-in-selenium-not-working-for-textarea-elements-but-getattribute-#comment52629808_32379622"><span title="2015-09-03T15:23:22.987 License: CC BY-SA 3.0" class="relativetime-clean">Sep 03 '15 at 15:23</span></a></span> </div> </div> </li> <li id="comment-52629914" class="comment js-comment " data-comment-id="52629914" data-comment-owner-id="1943133" data-comment-score="1"> <div class="js-comment-actions comment-actions"> <div class="comment-score js-comment-edit-hide"> <span title="number of 'useful comment' votes received" class="warm">1</span> </div> </div> <div class="comment-text js-comment-text-and-form"> <a name="comment52629914_32379622"></a> <div class="comment-body js-comment-edit-hide"> <span class="comment-copy">yeah but when I use the developer tools of some browsers (ie, firefox) I see the code as posted in my question -> so seems that it is a textnode, isn't it?</span> – <a href="../../users/1943133/drkthng" title="6,651 reputation" class="comment-user owner">drkthng</a> <span class="comment-date" dir="ltr"><a class="comment-link" href="../../questions/32379622/why-is-gettext-in-selenium-not-working-for-textarea-elements-but-getattribute-#comment52629914_32379622"><span title="2015-09-03T15:25:51.937 License: CC BY-SA 3.0" class="relativetime-clean">Sep 03 '15 at 15:25</span></a></span> </div> </div> </li> <li id="comment-114831570" class="comment js-comment " data-comment-id="114831570" data-comment-owner-id="63550" data-comment-score="0"> <div class="js-comment-actions comment-actions"> <div class="comment-score js-comment-edit-hide"> </div> </div> <div class="comment-text js-comment-text-and-form"> <a name="comment114831570_32379622"></a> <div class="comment-body js-comment-edit-hide"> <span class="comment-copy">Does this answer your question? [Selenium getText](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23804123/selenium-gettext)</span> – <a href="../../users/63550/peter-mortensen" title="30,738 reputation" class="comment-user ">Peter Mortensen</a> <span class="comment-date" dir="ltr"><a class="comment-link" href="../../questions/32379622/why-is-gettext-in-selenium-not-working-for-textarea-elements-but-getattribute-#comment114831570_32379622"><span title="2020-11-22T08:07:22.340 License: CC BY-SA 4.0" class="relativetime-clean">Nov 22 '20 at 08:07</span></a></span> </div> </div> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div id="answers"> <a name="tab-top"></a> <div id="answers-header"> <div class="answers-subheader grid ai-center mb8"> <div class="grid--cell fl1"> <h2 class="mb0" data-answercount="9">2 Answers<span style="display:none;" itemprop="answerCount">2</span></h2> </div> </div> </div> <a name="32404168"></a> <div id="answer-32404168" class="answer " data-answerid="32404168" data-ownerid="5295657" data-score="2" itemprop="suggestedAnswer" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/Answer"> <div class="post-layout"> <div class="votecell post-layout--left"> <div class="js-voting-container grid jc-center fd-column ai-stretch gs4 fc-black-200" data-post-id="32404168"> <button class="js-vote-up-btn grid--cell s-btn s-btn__unset c-pointer"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="m0 svg-icon iconArrowUpLg" width="36" height="36" viewBox="0 0 36 36"><path d="M2 26h32L18 10 2 26z"></path></svg></button> <div class="js-vote-count grid--cell fc-black-500 fs-title grid fd-column ai-center" itemprop="upvoteCount" data-value="2">2</div> </div> </div> <div class="postcell post-layout--right"> <div class="s-prose js-post-body" itemprop="text"><p>In Python, it gives the same result:</p> <pre><code>driver.find_element_by_id("txtComment").text driver.find_element_by_id("txtComment").get_attribute("value") </code></pre> <p>Some comment inside the textarea.</p></div> <div class="mb0"> <div class="mt16 grid gs8 gsy fw-wrap 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<div class="post-signature grid--cell"> <div class="s-user-card s-user-card"> <time class="s-user-card--time" datetime="answered Sep 04 '15 at 18:09">answered Sep 04 '15 at 18:09</time> <a href="../../users/5295657/mahsum-akbas" class="s-avatar s-avatar32 s-user-card--avatar"> <img class="s-avatar--image" src="../../users/profiles/5295657.webp" data-jdenticon-width="32" data-jdenticon-height="32" data-jdenticon-value="Mahsum Akbas" /> </a> <div class="s-user-card--info"> <a href="../../users/5295657/mahsum-akbas" class="s-user-card--link">Mahsum Akbas</a> <ul class="s-user-card--awards"> <li class="s-user-card--rep" title="reputation score">1,523</li> <li class="s-award-bling s-award-blinggold" title="3 gold badges">3</li> <li class="s-award-bling s-award-blingsilver" title="21 silver badges">21</li> <li class="s-award-bling s-award-blingbronze" title="38 bronze badges">38</li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-layout--right js-post-comments-component"> <div id="comments-32404168" class="comments js-comments-container bt bc-black-075 mt12 " data-post-id="32404168" data-min-length="15"> <ul class="comments-list js-comments-list" data-remaining-comments-count="0" data-canpost="false" data-cansee="true" data-comments-unavailable="false" data-addlink-disabled="true"> <li id="comment-114904202" class="comment js-comment " data-comment-id="114904202" data-comment-owner-id="63550" data-comment-score="0"> <div class="js-comment-actions comment-actions"> <div class="comment-score js-comment-edit-hide"> </div> </div> <div class="comment-text js-comment-text-and-form"> <a name="comment114904202_32404168"></a> <div class="comment-body js-comment-edit-hide"> <span class="comment-copy">But that is not the case for form `input` elements (for the actual user input)</span> – <a href="../../users/63550/peter-mortensen" title="30,738 reputation" class="comment-user ">Peter Mortensen</a> <span class="comment-date" dir="ltr"><a class="comment-link" href="../../questions/32379622/why-is-gettext-in-selenium-not-working-for-textarea-elements-but-getattribute-#comment114904202_32404168"><span title="2020-11-24T19:19:07.543 License: CC BY-SA 4.0" class="relativetime-clean">Nov 24 '20 at 19:19</span></a></span> </div> </div> </li> <li id="comment-114904338" class="comment js-comment " data-comment-id="114904338" data-comment-owner-id="63550" data-comment-score="0"> <div class="js-comment-actions comment-actions"> <div class="comment-score js-comment-edit-hide"> </div> </div> <div class="comment-text js-comment-text-and-form"> <a name="comment114904338_32404168"></a> <div class="comment-body js-comment-edit-hide"> <span class="comment-copy">Does `.text` really get the inner text of `textarea`? I would expect `.text` to always return an empty string. What did you test it on (incl. versions)?</span> – <a href="../../users/63550/peter-mortensen" title="30,738 reputation" class="comment-user ">Peter Mortensen</a> <span class="comment-date" dir="ltr"><a class="comment-link" href="../../questions/32379622/why-is-gettext-in-selenium-not-working-for-textarea-elements-but-getattribute-#comment114904338_32404168"><span title="2020-11-24T19:24:13.340 License: CC BY-SA 4.0" class="relativetime-clean">Nov 24 '20 at 19:24</span></a></span> </div> </div> </li> <li id="comment-127473173" class="comment js-comment " data-comment-id="127473173" data-comment-owner-id="4681134" data-comment-score="0"> <div class="js-comment-actions comment-actions"> <div class="comment-score js-comment-edit-hide"> </div> </div> <div class="comment-text js-comment-text-and-form"> <a name="comment127473173_32404168"></a> <div class="comment-body js-comment-edit-hide"> <span class="comment-copy">It is not true. In python I get the same behaviour .text returns empty string, where .get_attribute("value") returns string value</span> – <a href="../../users/4681134/arthur-zangiev" title="1,438 reputation" class="comment-user ">Arthur Zangiev</a> <span class="comment-date" dir="ltr"><a class="comment-link" href="../../questions/32379622/why-is-gettext-in-selenium-not-working-for-textarea-elements-but-getattribute-#comment127473173_32404168"><span title="2022-05-06T17:55:08.523 License: CC BY-SA 4.0" class="relativetime-clean">May 06 '22 at 17:55</span></a></span> </div> </div> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <a name="67320167"></a> <div id="answer-67320167" class="answer " data-answerid="67320167" data-ownerid="15117917" data-score="1" itemprop="suggestedAnswer" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/Answer"> <div class="post-layout"> <div class="votecell post-layout--left"> <div class="js-voting-container grid jc-center fd-column ai-stretch gs4 fc-black-200" data-post-id="67320167"> <button class="js-vote-up-btn grid--cell s-btn s-btn__unset c-pointer"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="m0 svg-icon iconArrowUpLg" width="36" height="36" viewBox="0 0 36 36"><path d="M2 26h32L18 10 2 26z"></path></svg></button> <div class="js-vote-count grid--cell fc-black-500 fs-title grid fd-column ai-center" itemprop="upvoteCount" data-value="1">1</div> </div> </div> <div class="postcell post-layout--right"> <div class="s-prose js-post-body" itemprop="text"><p>With Webdriverio (WDIO) tried the same thing.</p> <p>getText() not worked on Textarea. Returned blank String.</p> <p>Used getValue() instead, worked for me. Returned the exact string.</p> <p><code><textarea id="txtAreaDescription" maxlength="2500" class="css-pqtyuc">Auto_Internal_Note_Description</textarea></code></p></div> <div class="mb0"> <div class="mt16 grid gs8 gsy fw-wrap jc-end ai-start pt4 mb16"> <div class="grid--cell mr16 fl1 w96"></div> <div class="post-signature grid--cell"> <div class="s-user-card s-user-card"> <time class="s-user-card--time" datetime="answered Apr 29 '21 at 15:12">answered Apr 29 '21 at 15:12</time> <a href="../../users/15117917/ashish-agarwal" class="s-avatar s-avatar32 s-user-card--avatar"> <img class="s-avatar--image" src="../../users/profiles/15117917.webp" data-jdenticon-width="32" data-jdenticon-height="32" data-jdenticon-value="ashish agarwal" /> </a> <div class="s-user-card--info"> <a href="../../users/15117917/ashish-agarwal" class="s-user-card--link">ashish agarwal</a> <ul class="s-user-card--awards"> <li class="s-user-card--rep" title="reputation score">11</li> <li class="s-award-bling s-award-blingbronze" title="1 bronze badges">1</li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-layout--right js-post-comments-component"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div id="sidebar" class="show-votes" role="complementary" aria-label="sidebar"> <div class="module sidebar-linked"> <h4 id="h-linked">Linked</h4> <div class="linked"> <div class="spacer"> <a title="Vote score (upvotes - downvotes)"><div class="answer-votes answered-accepted default">11</div></a> <a href="../../questions/22087952/how-to-gettext-of-an-element-in-selenium-webdriver" class="question-hyperlink">How to gettext() of an element in Selenium Webdriver</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <script src="../../static/js/stack-icons.js"></script> <script src="../../static/js/fromnow.js"></script> </body> </html>