How to write locator for text between div and span (Preferably xpath) which contains non-breaking space ( )

Question

I want to write xpath for the following div:

<div class='someclass' id='someid'>:TEST&nbsp;SELENIUM&nbsp;1234<div>

Please note :

tag can be anything such as div, span ,or anchor tag.
  can be present anywhere in the text.

What I have tried so far :

//div[contains(text(),":TEST SELENIUM 1234")]

//div[contains(text(),":TEST{&nbsp;}SELENIUM{&nbsp;}1234")] 

//div[contains(text(),":TEST&nbsp;SELENIUM&nbsp;1234")] 

//div[normalize-space(text()) = ':TEST SELENIUM 1234']

//div[normalize-space(text()) = ':TEST{&nbsp;}SELENIUM{&nbsp;}1234']

//div[normalize-space(text()) = ':TEST&nbsp;SELENIUM&nbsp;1234']

//div[normalize-space(.) = ':TEST SELENIUM 1234']  

//div[normalize-space(.) = ':TEST{&nbsp;}SELENIUM{&nbsp;}1234']  

//div[normalize-space(.) = ':TEST&nbsp;SELENIUM&nbsp;1234']  

//div[normalize-space(.) = ':TEST{\u00a0}SELENIUM{\u00a0}1234']  

//div[normalize-space(.) = ':TEST${nbsp}SELENIUM${nbsp}1234']

What has worked for me (thanks to @Andersson)

//div[starts-with(text(), ":TEST") and substring(text(), 7)="SELENIUM" and  substring(text(), 16)="1234"]

This is more of a work around and would work only for known Strings.

These are the SO post which I have already followed :

Link1
Link2

Any help will be highly appreciated.

How are you testing this? Is it `xPath 2.0`, right? In Chrome and Firefox it is not working — Andrei Suvorkov, Aug 07 '18 at 05:39
@AndreiSuvorkov : I want to click on check boxes based on names. Names can be extracted only form the divs. Yes I'm using `xpath2.0` .No , it's not working in FF and chrome. If you know any workaround , that'd be really helpful. — cruisepandey, Aug 07 '18 at 05:56
Why don't you use `//div[starts-with(text(), ":TEST") and contains(text(), "SELENIUM")]`? This will return all divs which has both text irrespective of spaces between them. and you can add more `and` condition as needed. — Raj, Aug 07 '18 at 06:01
If you want to make it generic instead of dev, use this code: `//*[starts-with(text(), ":TEST") and contains(text(), "SELENIUM")]` — Raj, Aug 07 '18 at 06:01
Instead of `starts-with`, you can use simply `contains` too. E.g. `//*[contains(text(), ":TEST") and contains(text(), "SELENIUM")]` — Raj, Aug 07 '18 at 06:02
@RajKamal : The text is not generic , it can be `xyz&nbsp1234` also — cruisepandey, Aug 07 '18 at 06:03
@AndreiSuvorkov Yes! I just gave a suggestion, in case , if we need to use multiple `contains`, we can do so. — Raj, Aug 07 '18 at 06:04
@cruisepandey If text is not generic , what you want to validate?? I assumed that you are looking for an element with some text? — Raj, Aug 07 '18 at 06:05
whatever text is, you can pass that text to create xpath at runtime.. That's what I mean. — Raj, Aug 07 '18 at 06:06
@RajKamal : Yes. I am reading text from excel file and creating an item in UI. That particular text can be anything , as I do not have control over it. — cruisepandey, Aug 07 '18 at 06:06
But you know the text what you are passing in excel will be used to create element. Use same text to create xpath at runtime. — Raj, Aug 07 '18 at 06:07
your solution `//*[contains(text(), ":TEST") and contains(text(), "SELENIUM")]` will be good but if I have 3-4 sub strings then it wouldn't work I guess — cruisepandey, Aug 07 '18 at 06:07
For your case, xpath string will have to be designed at runtime, depending on how many `contains` condition, you need. — Raj, Aug 07 '18 at 06:09
@RajKamal : Yes , can you give the generic solution, that'd really helpful. — cruisepandey, Aug 07 '18 at 06:10
@RajKamal : I mean how can we have multiple contains as per the requirement while designing the xpath. — cruisepandey, Aug 07 '18 at 06:14

Andrei Suvorkov · Answer 1 · 2018-08-07T06:48:22.650

1

According to the conversation above, you can use this sample xPath builder(JAVA):

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String s = ":TEST&nbsp;SELENIUM&nbsp;1234";
        String[] parts = s.split("&nbsp;");
        StringBuilder xpath = new StringBuilder("//*");

        for (int i = 0; i < parts.length; i++){
            xpath.append((i == 0) ? "[contains(text(), '" + parts[i] + "')" : " and contains(text(), '" + parts[i] + "')");
        }
        xpath.append("]");

        System.out.println(xpath);
    }
}

Output:

//*[contains(text(), ':TEST') and contains(text(), 'SELENIUM') and contains(text(), '1234')]

edited Aug 07 '18 at 06:48

answered Aug 07 '18 at 06:18

Andrei Suvorkov

5,559
5
22
48

It looks quite complex , let me give a try. this might take some times. Thanks for the answer anyway. – cruisepandey Aug 07 '18 at 06:22
@cruisepandey I am pretty sure, there is a space to optimize this code. It is just quick and dirty example ;) – Andrei Suvorkov Aug 07 '18 at 06:23
@RajKamal : If you have any better solution or can optimize the same code ,that'd be really appreciated. – cruisepandey Aug 07 '18 at 06:29
@cruisepandey I have edited my answer, a little bit optimized the code and fixed some bugs. Please have a look – Andrei Suvorkov Aug 07 '18 at 06:30

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 07 '18 at 08:23

In Python I would do

required_div = [div for div in driver.find_elements_by_xpath('//div') if div.text == ':TEST SELENIUM 1234'][0]

to find required node by its complete text content ignoring non-breaking space chars

P.S. Again it's just a workaround, but it seem to be quite simple solution

How to write locator for text between div and span (Preferably xpath) which contains non-breaking space ( )

2 Answers2