Select an element in Selenium, Python, not by using XPath

Question

I was trying to scrape a website, and I need to select only the ul element inside the div with a class "Slider__SliderWrapper-sc-143uniy-0 jrPmnS", however, since there are many div tags with the same class, the only way I have to select just the ul I need is by looking at the href of the a tag, the one inside the h2. I can't use xpath, because div tags always change position.

<div>
   <h2><a class="slider-components__SectionLink-sc-1r2bduf-3 jchpWs" href="rightOne">Right!</a></h2>
   <div class="Slider__SliderWrapper-sc-143uniy-0 jrPmnS">
      <ul class="Slider__List-sc-143uniy-1 MTYOL">
      the right ul
      </ul>
   </div>
</div>
<div>
   <h2><a class="slider-components__SectionLink-sc-1r2bduf-3 jchpWs" href="wrongOne">Something else</a></h2>
   <div class="Slider__SliderWrapper-sc-143uniy-0 jrPmnS">
      <ul class="Slider__List-sc-143uniy-1 MTYOL">
      the wrong ul
      </ul>
   </div>
</div>

I thought about using css selector but I don't know how to, any help?

see these links, may be helpful [link1](https://sqa.stackexchange.com/questions/18342/how-to-handle-dynamic-changing-ids-in-xpath) [link2](https://www.jadeglobal.com/blog/ways-locate-dynamic-web-elements-selenium) & [link3](https://browsee.io/blog/strategies-to-handle-dynamic-web-elements-in-selenium/) — gowridev, May 27 '21 at 18:10

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 27 '21 at 18:24

1

You definitely CAN use xpath to access the href attribute AND it's contents:

//a[contains(@href,'rightOne')]

and for the ul:

//h2/a[contains(@href,'rightOne')]/../following-sibling::div/ul

answered May 27 '21 at 18:24

DMart

2,401
1
14
19

cruisepandey · Answer 2 · 2021-05-27T18:10:56.540

0

try xpath

//a[@href='rightOne']/../following-sibling::div/ul

Explanation :

You cannot use css_selector or any other locator since you are depending on a tag and you have to traverse upwards in DOM first, we are using /.. for that, alternatively you can use /parent::h2 and the next following-sibling using /following-sibling::div and then finally ul child

edited May 27 '21 at 18:10

answered May 27 '21 at 18:01

cruisepandey

28,520
6
20
38

But in this way you are selecting the a tag, I need the ul, chid of a div, close to the h2 that contains that a tag. – Calen Brow May 27 '21 at 18:03
@CalenBrow : Check out the updated answer ! – cruisepandey May 27 '21 at 18:08

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 03 '21 at 02:45

You cannot get a parent element with css selector, as it's not possible. Check here Is there a CSS parent selector?

In your case you would need to get the parent of a[href=rightOne] and get the ul of the following sibling.

With css you could use one of these locators:

div:nth-child(1) .Slider__SliderWrapper-sc-143uniy-0.jrPmnS>.Slider__List-sc-143uniy-1.MTYOL

Or

div:nth-child(1) .Slider__SliderWrapper-sc-143uniy-0.jrPmnS>ul

I would select any of XPaths proposed in other two answers if there are not restrictions on selectors.

But, if you are using such libraries as BeautfulSoup, you will have to use css selectors, as it does not support XPath. So, use the ones I proposed.

Select an element in Selenium, Python, not by using XPath

3 Answers3