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Session 25 Locators XPath Axes SelectorsHub

  • Self

  • Parent

  • Child

  • Ancestor - parent's parent

  • Descendant - child's child

  • Sibling nodes -- preceding sibling, following sibling

Most preferred method to find parent:

  1. //input[@id="username"]/parent::form

  2. //input[@id="username"]/parent::*

Avoid using input[@id="username"]/.. because:
✅ It breaks easily with structural changes.
✅ It reduces readability and explicitness.
✅ It can cause unexpected errors.

from self-node, you can have multiple descendants but there will be only one ancestor.

Looking descendants of a known element

//form[@id="frm_login"]/descendant::input
//form[@id="frm_login"]//input
This will select all elements including current one (self-node)

If self-node has multiple descendants with same tag-name i.e. (eg. multiple input tags) then

//form[@id="frm_login"]//input[1]
//form[@id="frm_login"]//input[2]

// input[@id='username']/following::input
--> will select all elements except current one (self-node)

Practice Problem

Take the following codes and tell me if there are more than 1 input elements / tags then which input element it will locate ?

//form[@id="frm_login"]//input

// input[@id='username']/following::input