SyntaxError: invalid syntax error using xpath with Selenium and Python

Question

I am writing a simple code where I needed to extract the contents of a html tag which was <span>. I've used the xpath to do it. Here's the error

File "C:\Users\BRS\Desktop\AccountChef\wattpad acc maker - Copy.py", line 41
    emailentry = wd.findElement(By.xpath(//*[@id='email']//span)).getText();
                                         ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Since it's a syntax error, I don't think I need to give whole code. Please tell what i did wrong

Answer 1

Seems there is a mixup of Selenium's python and java language binding syntax.

• If you are using Python you need to use find_element_by_xpath() and text attribute as follows:

  emailentry = wd.find_element_by_xpath("//*[@id='email']//span").text
  

• If you are using Java you need to use findElement() and getText() method as follows:

  String emailentry = wd.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@id='email']//span")).getText();