Python Selenium - Check if a WebElement is equal to another WebElement

Question

How to compare two selenium WebElements to see if they are the same ?

First I retrieve a list of input_fields and the first_input element:

self.input_fields = driver.find_elements(By.CLASS_NAME, class_name) self.first_input = driver.find_element(By.ID, id)

Then I try to check if input_fields[0] and first_input are the same WebElement.

if self.first_input is not self.input_fields[0]:
    self.__log.warning("WebElement first_input : {} != {}".format(self.first_input, self.input_fields[0]))

Though the session and element are the same, the warning message is in any case triggered.

WARNING  - WebElement first_input: <selenium.webdriver.remote.webelement.WebElement (session="796bf0bcf3e0df528ee932d477951689", element="94a2ee62-9511-45e5-8aa3-bd3d3e9be309")> != <selenium.webdriver.remote.webelement.WebElement (session="796bf0bcf3e0df528ee932d477951689", element="94a2ee62-9511-45e5-8aa3-bd3d3e9be309")>

Seems like you are trying compare two web elements. You can't compare two web-elements.If you wish to compare the inputs tag then compare their attribute or text value. — KunduK, Aug 06 '19 at 09:54

Marco D.G. · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-07T06:49:12.457

Edit: the use of != instead of is not would have resolved everything:

if self.first_input != self.input_fields[0]:

Solution

if self.first_input.id == self.input_fields[0].id:
    self.__log.info("Same element {} , {}".format(self.first_input.id, self.input_fields[0].id))

Reading the docs I've found the id property, whose definition serves as getter for the private attribute_id

@property
def id(self):
    """Internal ID used by selenium.

    This is mainly for internal use. Simple use cases such as checking if 2
    webelements refer to the same element, can be done using ``==``::

        if element1 == element2:
            print("These 2 are equal")

    """
    return self._id

source

class WebElement(object):
    def __init__(self, parent, id_, w3c=False):
        self._parent = parent
        self._id = id_
        self._w3c = w3c

Note:

print("{}".format(self.first_input.id))

Gives us the element id which is the same that we have seen in the object.

94a2ee62-9511-45e5-8aa3-bd3d3e9be309

Sers · Answer 2 · 2019-08-06T13:03:27.197

Compare WebElements should work, print id of first_element and input_fields[0] to check. Also, print all ids of input_fields to check if there are any duplicate elements with the same id.

As an option you can try to compare the full CSS path of the two elements, source.

script = """
function fullPath(element){
  var names = [];
  while (element.parentNode) {
      if (element==element.ownerDocument.documentElement) names.unshift(element.tagName);
      else{
        for (var i=1, e=element; e.previousElementSibling; e=e.previousElementSibling,i++);
        names.unshift(element.tagName+":nth-child("+i+")");
      }
      element=element.parentNode;
  }
  return names.join(" > ");
}
return fullPath(arguments[0]);
"""

first_input_full_path = driver.execute_script(script, self.first_input)
another_input_full_path = driver.execute_script(script, self.input_fields[0])

if first_input_full_path == another_input_full_path:
    self.__log.warning("WebElement first_input : {} != {}".format(self.first_input, self.input_fields[0]))

Python Selenium - Check if a WebElement is equal to another WebElement

2 Answers2

Solution