XPath Functions - contains() and starts-with()

How it works

contains(a, b) is true when string a includes string b anywhere, and starts-with(a, b) when a begins with it. The first argument says what to test: @id or @href for an attribute, text() for the element's own text, or . for all the text inside it, including text in child elements.

Browsers run XPath 1.0, which has no ends-with(). On Chrome it throws InvalidSelectorException. If you need that check, use the CSS $= attribute operator from lesson 12.

Both functions are case-sensitive and match plain substrings, so they can match more than you meant. On the Links page, //a[contains(@href,'Buttons')] matches three links, and the first is the sidebar link to Radio Buttons, which sits off-screen in the default headless window.

About the assignment

The Links page has three "Practice ..." links, each with its own id. You will find one by a word inside its visible text and another by the first letters of its id, then print each link's complete text.

What you will do

1. 1Write an XPath for a elements whose text() contains the word given in the task, and pass it to By.xpath().
2. 2Print the whole link text with getText() after the label used in the expected output.
3. 3Write a second XPath that uses starts-with() on the id attribute with the prefix from the task.
4. 4Print that link's text with its own label. Both labels quote the search word in single quotes, exactly as the expected output shows.

Common mistakes

• Swapping the arguments

  contains('TextFields', text()) asks whether the fixed word contains the element's text. That is a different question, and nothing useful matches.

• Lowercasing the search word

  XPath has no case-insensitive mode. //a[contains(text(),'textfields')] finds 0 links, so findElement() throws NoSuchElementException.

• Using text() when the text is in a child

  text() only sees text that sits directly in the element. If the link wraps its label in a span, test . instead.

• Trying to filter on text with CSS

  jQuery-style a:contains(...) is not real CSS. Chrome rejects it and Selenium throws InvalidSelectorException.

In a real test suite

Related lessons

• Find Element by Partial Link TextBy.partialLinkText() is the shortcut for the text case, but it only works on links.
• CSS Selectors - Attribute SelectorsThe CSS operators ^=, $= and *= cover the attribute cases, including ends-with.
• XPath Axes - Parent and SiblingMove from an element you matched to its parent or siblings with XPath axes.

To try one of these calls on any page without a task, open the Online Selenium Java Compiler.

Starter code

The editor above opens with this code. Fill in the TODO lines, then run and submit it.

import org.openqa.selenium.*;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("https://testkru.com/Elements/Links");
        
        // TODO: Find link where text contains "TextFields"
        // TODO: Find link where id starts with "cypress"
        
        driver.quit();
    }
}