Definition of XPath regex
XPath regex is help us using locate the part of an attribute that stays consistent for identifying the element of the web in a web page. Sometimes value from the attribute of html code is changed, the attribute of the instance is changing every time and the web page which we are working on is refreshed every time. Any alphanumeric value which was we are using is a high probability to change every time.
What is XPath regex?
In some cases, XPath includes the part which was always changed when we are loading the page and it will cause a failure. Also, we can use the wildcards for handling the wildcards operator on which XPath is not applied on those methods. Standard of XPath introduces the regular expression which was new and used for the general purpose. The XPath regex plugin is used to match the style which contains one or more values unique from the attributes and elements in our xml documents. XPath regex is very useful and important in python and selenium.
How to use XPath regex?
- For using the XPath regex we are identifying the element by matching its attribute partially by using the help of regular expressions. XPath contains multiple methods to achieve the same.
- To use the XPath regex in selenium python we need to install the selenium in python below example shows to install selenium by using the pip command are as follows.
- In this step, we are installing the selenium by using the pip command. The below example shows to install selenium by using the pip command are as follows.
pip install selenium
- After installing the selenium by using the pip command we are login into the python shell by using the python command are as follows.
python
- After login into the python shell in this step, we are importing the nltk.corpus module in our program by using the import keyword. The below example shows import the nltk.corpus modules are as follows.
from selenium import webdriver
- Suppose we have not installed selenium in our system using pip then it will show in the below error as follows.
- In XPath regex we have multiple methods to achieve the regular expressions below the method which was used in XPath regex are as follows.
- Contains method
- Starts with method
- Ends with method
- Contains method means the string which was contained in a given text. Below is the syntax of contains method as follows.
Syntax –
driver.find_element_path (input [contains (@stud_name, sel)])- Above syntax, we are searching the input tag which contains the stud_name and attribute containing the sel as text.
- Below is the example of contains method in XPath regex are as follows. In the below example first, we are importing webdriver by using the selenium package.
Code –
from selenium import webdriver
XPath = webdriver.Chrome (executable_path = "C:\\chromedriver.exe")
XPath.maximize_window()
XPath.get ("www.example.com/index.htm")
XPath.refresh()
XPath.find_element_by_XPath ("//input[contains(@id,'sc-i')]").
send_keys ("Selenium")
XPath.close()
- Starts-with method means the string starts with the given text. Below is the syntax of starts with the method are as follows.
Syntax –
driver.find_element_path (input [starts-with (@stud_name, Tut)])- Above syntax, we are searching the input tag which contains the stud_name and attribute containing the Tut as text.
- Below is the example of a starts-with method in XPath regex is as follows. In the below example first, we are importing webdriver by using the selenium package.
Code –
from selenium import webdriver
XPath = webdriver.Chrome (executable_path = "C:\\chromedriver.exe")
XPath.maximize_window()
XPath.get ("www.example.com/index.htm")
XPath.refresh()
XPath.find_element_by_XPath ("//input[starts-with(@id, 'gsc')]").
send_keys ("Selenium")
XPath.clos ()
- Ends-with method means the string ends with the given text. Below is the syntax of ends with the method is as follows.
Syntax –
driver.find_element_path (input [ends-with (@stud_name, stud)])- Above syntax, we are searching the input tag which contains the stud_name and attribute containing the stud as text.
- Below is the example of an ends-with method in XPath regex as follows. In the below example first, we are importing webdriver by using the selenium package.
Code –
from selenium import webdriver
XPath = webdriver.Chrome (executable_path = "C:\\chromedriver.exe")
XPath.maximize_window()
XPath.get ("www.example.com/index.htm")
XPath.refresh()
XPath.find_element_by_XPath ("//input[ends-with(@name, stud)]").
send_keys ("Selenium")
XPath.close()
XPath regex Function
- At the time the attribute value is long it will be a mess with the code, we need to take unique text from the said attribute and need to generate the regular expression by using CSS selector or XPath. Below is the XPath regex function as follows.
- Fn:matches – This function will take the regular expression and subject string as an input. If our regular expression is matched in any string then this function will return the true. If suppose function has not matched any string then it will return false. We need to use anchors when we want only to return the true value when regex will match the entire string.
- Fn:replace – This function is taking replacement string as input and takes the subject as a string in a regular expression. It will return the new string by all the matches by using the pattern of regex, and it was replaced with the text of replacement. We can use $1 to $99 to capture replacement into the groups. Zero will insert all regex matches. The $0 will insert whole the regex match. Backslashes and literal will escaped in a backslash. Zero-length matches are not replaced by replacing function, it will raise an error rather than return an output.
- Fn:tokenize – It looks like a spit function in other programming languages. This function will return the string array which consisting all other substrings in the subject of all matches of regex. The array will not contain the matches of regex. If the regex is matching the first and last character into the string of the subject then the last and the first string will be resulting in an array. Tokenize is not handling the regular expression of zero length.
Conclusion
The XPath regex plugin is used to match style which contains one or more values unique from attributes and elements in our xml documents. XPath regex is helped us using locate the part of an attribute which stays consistent for identifying the element of the web in a web page.
Recommended Articles
This is a guide to XPath regex. Here we discuss the Definition, What is XPath regex, How to use XPath regex, and examples with code implementation respectively. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –
