Xpath all commands tutorial
/ single slash is used for direct child, ie /html/body/div/header
// double is used for find anywhere ie //header
1. Selecting nodes
Command: Selects all 'div' nodes in the document.
//div2. Selecting nodes with specific attribute
Command: //[@attribute='value'] //Selects all 'a' nodes with the class attribute value 'example'.
<a class="example">hello </a>
//a[@class='example']
<div class="loepr" data-id="review-badge-date">hello </div>
//div[@data-id='review-badge-date']3. Selecting nodes with any attribute
Command: //nodename[@attribute] //Selects all 'img' nodes with a 'src' attribute.
//img[@src]4. Selecting nodes with specific text
//nodename[text()='text'] //Selects all 'p' nodes with the exact text 'Hello, world
//p[text()='Hello, world!'] 5. Direct child : Absolute path. only work if the document structure exactly matches that hierarchy.
/html/body/div/header
Go to html>body>div>header6.NthElement : Select Direct first child or second
/html/body/div[1]
/html/body/div[2]7. Selecting text :: Text select of an element
/html/body/div/header[1]/text()
Cheat sheet
| Symbol / Expression | Meaning | Example | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| / | Absolute path (root → direct child) | /html/body/div | Selects the <div> that is a direct child of <body> |
| // | Anywhere (descendant, any depth) | //div | Selects all <div> elements in the document |
| . | Current node (self) | .//p | From current node, select all <p> descendants |
| .. | Parent of current node | ../h2 | From current node, go up one level and select <h2> |
| @ | Attribute selector | //a/@href | Selects the href attribute values of all <a> |
| [@attr='value'] | Filter by attribute value | //div[@id='main'] | Selects <div id="main"> |
| contains(@attr,'text') | Partial attribute match | //div[contains(@class,'header')] | Matches <div class="site-header"> |
| [n] | Nth element (1-based) | (//p)[1] | Selects the first <p> in the document |
| text() | Node text | //h1/text() | Extracts the text inside <h1> |
| * | Wildcard (any element) | //div/* | All direct children of <div> |