The difference between find_element and find_elements

2020-08-07

Overview

There are two similar method in Selenium.

For Python or Ruby

find_element
find_elements

For Java or C#

findElement/FindElement
findElements/FindElements

[A.find_element / findElement]returns a web element.
[B.find_elements / findElements]returns the list of elements.

Test Page

All tag have a unique id and a common class.

Usage

Code example for getting elements with XPath.

Python

driver.find_element_by_xpath('XPath')    
driver.find_elements_by_xpath('XPath')   #Enclose string with " or '

Java

driver.findElement(By.xpath('XPath'));    
driver.findElements(By.xpath('XPath'));   //Enclose string with "

C#

driver.FindElement(By.XPath("XPath"));    //XPath
driver.FindElements(By.XPath("XPath"));   //Enclose string with "

Ruby

driver.find_element(:xpath, 'XPath')    
driver.find_elements(:xpath, 'XPath')   #Enclose string with " or '

JavaScript

driver.findElement(By.xpath('XPath'));    
driver.findElements(By.xpath('XPath'));   //Enclose string with " or '

Python

Sample code

The program to get and click the element In Selenium.

# -*- coding:utf-8 -*-
from selenium import webdriver

driver_path = r'D:\Selenium\driver\chromedriver.exe'
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=driver_path)
driver.get("https://selenium-world.net/page/test_link1.html");

#find_element
element = driver.find_element_by_xpath('//a[@class="link"]')
#find_elements
elements = driver.find_elements_by_xpath('//a[@class="link"]')
elements[0].click()

driver.quit()

In a development editor, you will need to restart the script every time you enter code. You’ll need to launch a new Selenium and to display the target page.
CodeChecker allows you to run code as many times as you like while keeping the target screen open in your browser.

Case1(find_element)

[A.find_element] Specify the class.
When you enter the code in the code field and press the “Code" button, you can get elements.

Input code

driver.find_element_by_xpath('//a[@class="link"]')

Return value

<selenium.webdriver.remote.webelement.WebElement (session="4eabe4f404fb3885f85c1142eb8bd621", element="8ca5f5d4-5e0a-4567-b769-9f90f6b5a902")>

There are five elements that matched to the specified class, but the return value is one WebElement.
Selenium returns the first matching element.

Case2(find_elements)

[B.find_elements] Specify the class.

Input code

driver.find_elements_by_xpath('//a[@class="link"]')

Return value

[<selenium.webdriver.remote.webelement.WebElement (session="4eabe4f404fb3885f85c1142eb8bd621", element="8ca5f5d4-5e0a-4567-b769-9f90f6b5a902")>, <selenium.webdriver.remote.webelement.WebElement (session="4eabe4f404fb3885f85c1142eb8bd621", element="b763fa4c-621a-4989-b4cb-fa099d55bf3a")>, <selenium.webdriver.remote.webelement.WebElement (session="4eabe4f404fb3885f85c1142eb8bd621", element="a3bfa971-be58-4105-8bd0-2f5cb2e61a71")>, <selenium.webdriver.remote.webelement.WebElement (session="4eabe4f404fb3885f85c1142eb8bd621", element="97bed18b-aa45-4b7a-8bbb-526a0b246a3e")>, <selenium.webdriver.remote.webelement.WebElement (session="4eabe4f404fb3885f85c1142eb8bd621", element="b97ad028-8fee-40fb-a2ee-669763f7cca0")>]

All the matching elements are returned as a list (array), such as [element1, element2, element3…].

Type

Input code

type(driver.find_elements_by_xpath('//a[@class="link"]'))    #get type

Output

<class 'list'>    #list object

List elements

To operate the elements, you need to get the element from the returned list.

Input code

driver.find_elements_by_xpath('//a[@class="link"]')[0]

Return value

<selenium.webdriver.remote.webelement.WebElement (session="4eabe4f404fb3885f85c1142eb8bd621", element="8ca5f5d4-5e0a-4567-b769-9f90f6b5a902")>

Selenium returns the WebElement.

Case3(find_elements:No element)

[B.find_elements] If you specify a wrong class, Selenium will not get the elements.

Input code

driver.find_elements_by_xpath('//a[@class="xxxx"]')

Retrun value

[]

Selenium will return an empty list.

Get the list element

When you get an element from the empty list, an exception will occur.

Inupt code

driver.find_elements_by_xpath('//a[@class="xxxx"]')[0]

Output

IndexErrorlist index out of range<traceback object at 0x000001EB8EAF21C8>

That is a Python exception, not a Selenium exception.

Case4(find_element:No element)

[A.find_element] If you specify a wrong class, an exception occurs.

Input code

driver.find_element_by_xpath('//a[@class="xxxx"]')

Output

NoSuchElementExceptionMessage: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"//a[@class="xxxx"]"}
  (Session info: chrome=83.0.4103.116)
<traceback object at 0x000001EB8EAF2348>

That is a Selenium exception.

Case5(To operate)

find_element

[A.find_element] Operate the returned WebElement.

Input code

driver.find_element_by_xpath('//a[@id="link1"]').click()

find_elements

[B.find_elements] Get an element from the returned list.

Input code

driver.find_elements_by_xpath('//a[@id="link1"]')[0].click()

Exception of find_elements

[B.find_elements] The returned list has no click method.

Input code

driver.find_elements_by_xpath('//a[@id="link1"]').click()

Output

AttributeError'list' object has no attribute 'click'<traceback object at 0x000001EB8EAF2F88>

An exception occurs.

existence check of the element

[B.find_elements] If Selenium does not get the element, no exception will be thrown. Therefore, it is used to check the existence of the element.

Input code

list1 = driver.find_elements_by_xpath('//a[@class="xxxx"]')
print(len(list1))
if len(list1) == 0:
    print("No Element")

Output

0
No Element

Loop

[B.find_elements] It stores the elements in a list (array). So it is used in a loop processing.

Sample1

Input code

list1 = driver.find_elements_by_xpath('//a[@class="link"]')
for element in list1:
    print(element.text)

Output

Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4
Link5

Sample2

Input code

list1 = driver.find_elements_by_xpath('//a[@class="link"]')
i=0
while i < len(list1):
    print(list1[i].text)
    i += 1

Output

Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4
Link5

Java

Sample code

package example.test;
import java.util.*;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
public class App 
{
    public static void main( String[] args )
    {
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", 
                  "D:\\Selenium\\driver\\chromedriver.exe");
        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("https://selenium-world.net/page/test_link1.html");
        //findElement
        WebElement element = 
                    driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']"));
        //findElements
        ArrayList<WebElement> elements = new ArrayList<WebElement>
                  (driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")));
        elements.get(0).click();
        driver.quit();
    }
}

Rewrite the code if necessary and check the operation.

Case1(findElement)

[A.findElement] Specify the class.

Input code

System.out.println(driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")));
System.out.println(driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")).getClass().getName());

Output

[[ChromeDriver: chrome on WINDOWS (63c99009f44b79608809e2577a90fe8c)] -> xpath: //a[@class='link']]
org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebElement

There are five elements that matched to the specified class, but the return value is one RemoteWebElement.
Selenium returns the first matching element.

Case2(findElements)

[B.findElements] Specify the class.

Input code

System.out.println(driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")));
System.out.println(driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")).getClass().getName());

Output

[[[ChromeDriver: chrome on WINDOWS (63c99009f44b79608809e2577a90fe8c)] -> xpath: //a[@class='link']], [[ChromeDriver: chrome on WINDOWS (63c99009f44b79608809e2577a90fe8c)] -> xpath: //a[@class='link']], [[ChromeDriver: chrome on WINDOWS (63c99009f44b79608809e2577a90fe8c)] -> xpath: //a[@class='link']], [[ChromeDriver: chrome on WINDOWS (63c99009f44b79608809e2577a90fe8c)] -> xpath: //a[@class='link']], [[ChromeDriver: chrome on WINDOWS (63c99009f44b79608809e2577a90fe8c)] -> xpath: //a[@class='link']]]
java.util.ArrayList

All the matching elements are returned as a ArrayList.

ArrayList elements

To operate the elements, you need to get the element from the returned ArrayList.

Input code

System.out.println(driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")).get(0));
System.out.println(driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")).get(0).getClass().getName());

Output

[[ChromeDriver: chrome on WINDOWS (38543984b6bf0654417de6d77dfa0a3e)] -> xpath: //a[@class='link']]
org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebElement

Selenium returns the RemoteWebElement.

Case3(findElements:No element)

[B.findElements] If you specify a wrong class, Selenium will not get the elements.

Input code

System.out.println(driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='xxxx']")));
System.out.println(driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='xxxx']")).getClass().getName());

Output

[]
java.util.ArrayList

Selenium will return an empty ArrayList.

Get the ArrayList element

When you get an element from the empty ArrayList, an exception will occur.

Input code

driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='xxxx']")).get(0);

Output

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 0, Size: 0

That is a Java exception, not a Selenium exception.

Case4(findElement:No element)

[A.findElement] If you specify a wrong class, an exception occurs.

Input code

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[@class='xxxx']"));

Output

Exception in thread "main" org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"//a[@class='xxxx']"}
  (Session info: chrome=84.0.4147.89)
For documentation on this error, please visit: https://www.seleniumhq.org/exceptions/no_such_element.html

That is a Selenium exception.

Case5(To operate)

findElement

[A.findElement]Operate the returned WebElement.

Input code

WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']"));
element.click();

findElements

[B.findElements] Get an element from the returned ArrayList.

Input code

driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")).get(0).click();

Exception of find_elements

[B.findElements] The returned list has no click method.

Input code

driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")).click();

The above code does not compile.

existence check of the element

[B.findElements] If Selenium does not get the element, no exception will be thrown. Therefore, it is used to check the existence of the element.

Input code

ArrayList<WebElement> elements = new ArrayList<WebElement>
          (driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='xxxx']")));
if (elements.size() == 0){
    System.out.println("No Element");
}

Output

No Element

Loop

[B.findElements] It stores the elements in a list (array). So it is used in a loop processing.

Sample1

Input code

ArrayList<WebElement> elements = new ArrayList<WebElement>
         (driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")));
for(WebElement element:elements){
    System.out.println(element.getText());
}

Output

Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4
Link5

Sample2

Input code

ArrayList<WebElement> elements = new ArrayList<WebElement>
         (driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")));
int i=0;
while(i < elements.size()){
    System.out.println(elements.get(i).getText());
    i++;
}

Output

Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4
Link5

C#

Sample code

using System;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using OpenQA.Selenium;
using OpenQA.Selenium.Chrome;

namespace SampleTest
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {   
            String path = @"D:\Selenium\driver";    //C#はフォルダを指定
            IWebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(path);
            driver.Navigate().GoToUrl
                    ("https://selenium-world.net/page/test_link1.html");

            //FindElement
            IWebElement element = 
                    driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//a[@class='link']"));
            //FindElements
            ReadOnlyCollection<IWebElement> elements = 
                     driver.FindElements(By.XPath("//a[@class='link']"));
            elements[0].Click();
            driver.Quit();
        }
    }
}

Rewrite the code if necessary and check the operation.

Case1(FindElement)

[A.FindElement] Specify the class.

Input code

Console.WriteLine(driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//a[@class='link']")));
Console.WriteLine(driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//a[@class='link']")).GetType());

Output

Element (id = 912f4746-132d-492c-9b9d-848538848478)
OpenQA.Selenium.Remote.RemoteWebElement

There are five elements that matched to the specified class, but the return value is one RemoteWebElement.
Selenium returns the first matching element.

Case2(FindElements)

[B.FindElements] Specify the class.

Input code

Console.WriteLine(driver.FindElements(By.XPath("//a[@class='link']")));
Console.WriteLine(driver.FindElements(By.XPath("//a[@class='link']")).GetType());

ReadOnlyCollection<IWebElement> elements = driver.FindElements(By.XPath("//a[@class='link']"));
foreach(IWebElement element in elements)
{
    Console.WriteLine(element);
}

Output

System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection`1[OpenQA.Selenium.IWebElement]
System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection`1[OpenQA.Selenium.IWebElement]
Element (id = 3af8afc8-4292-45b2-bff5-bb4dec3f2dd0)
Element (id = e65f605b-70e8-4a2a-8da4-a662b232c7dc)
Element (id = e6f1c212-ffab-4356-ad8a-2d51f6ed7ebf)
Element (id = a04a78cf-9dd5-4aab-bbbd-398e92b5e64d)
Element (id = 8a539cea-6c9f-4f3b-8443-ab06ecaad4d5)

All the matching elements are returned as a Collection.

Collection elements

To operate the elements, you need to get the element from the returned Collection.

Input code

Console.WriteLine(driver.FindElements(By.XPath("//a[@class='link']"))[0]);
Console.WriteLine(driver.FindElements(By.XPath("//a[@class='link']"))[0].GetType());

Output

Element (id = 27ba3021-0752-4ccd-b0b8-019ffbf914b9)
OpenQA.Selenium.Remote.RemoteWebElement

Selenium returns the RemoteWebElement.

Case4(FindElements:No element)

[B.FindElements] If you specify a wrong class, Selenium will not get the elements.

Input code

Console.WriteLine(driver.FindElements(By.XPath("//a[@class='xxxx']")).GetType());
Console.WriteLine(driver.FindElements(By.XPath("//a[@class='xxxx']")).Count());

Output

System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection`1[OpenQA.Selenium.IWebElement]
0

Selenium will return an empty Collection.

Get the Collection element

When you get an element from the empty Collection, an exception will occur.

Input code

Console.WriteLine(driver.FindElements(By.XPath("//a[@class='xxxx']"))[0]);

Output

Exception thrown: 'System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException' in mscorlib.dll
An unhandled exception of type 'System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException' occurred in mscorlib.dll
Additional information: Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.

That is a C# exception, not a Selenium exception.

Case4(FindElement:No element)

[A.FindElement] If you specify a wrong class, an exception occurs.

Input code

driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//a[@class='xxxx']"));

Output

Exception thrown: 'OpenQA.Selenium.NoSuchElementException' in WebDriver.dll
An unhandled exception of type 'OpenQA.Selenium.NoSuchElementException' occurred in WebDriver.dll
Additional information: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"//a[@class='xxxx']"}
  (Session info: chrome=84.0.4147.105)

That is a Selenium exception.

Case5(To operate)

FindElement

[A.FindElement] Operate the returned WebElement.

Input code

IWebElement element = driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//a[@class='link']"));
element.Click();

FindElements

[B.FindElements] Get an element from the returned Collection.

Input code

driver.FindElements(By.XPath("//a[@class='link']"))[0].Click();

Exception of find_elements

[B.FindElements] The returned collection has no click method.

Input code

driver.FindElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")).click();

The above code does not compile.

existence check of the element

[B.FindElements]

If Selenium does not get the element, no exception will be thrown. Therefore, it is used to check the existence of the element.

Input code

ReadOnlyCollection<IWebElement> elements = driver.FindElements(By.XPath("//a[@class='xxxx']"));
if (elements.Count() == 0)
{
    Console.WriteLine("No Element");
}

Output

No Element

Loop

[B.FindElements] It stores the elements in a collection. So it is used in a loop processing.

Sample1

Input code

ReadOnlyCollection<IWebElement> elements = driver.FindElements(By.XPath("//a[@class='link']"));
foreach (IWebElement element in elements)
{
    Console.WriteLine(element.Text);
}

Output

Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4
Link5

Sample2

Input code

ReadOnlyCollection<IWebElement> elements = driver.FindElements(By.XPath("//a[@class='link']"));
int i = 0;
while (i < elements.Count())
{
    Console.WriteLine(elements[i].Text);
    i++;
}

Output

Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4
Link5

Ruby

Sample code

require "selenium-webdriver"

Selenium::WebDriver::Chrome.driver_path = 'D:\Selenium\driver\chromedriver.exe'
driver = Selenium::WebDriver.for :chrome 
driver.get("https://selenium-world.net/page/test_link1.html")

#find_element
element = driver.find_element(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]')
#find_elements
elements = driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]')
elements[0].click

driver.quit

Rewrite the code if necessary and check the operation.

Case1(find_element)

[A.find_element] Specify the class.

Input code

puts driver.find_element(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]')
puts driver.find_element(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]').class

Output

#<Selenium::WebDriver::Element:0x0000000007064288>
Selenium::WebDriver::Element

There are five elements that matched to the specified class, but the return value is one Element.
Selenium returns the first matching element.

Case2(find_elements)

[B.find_elements]Specify the class.

Input code

puts driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]')
puts driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]').class
puts driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]').size
puts driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]').length

Output

#<Selenium::WebDriver::Element:0x000000000706eeb8>
#<Selenium::WebDriver::Element:0x000000000706ee40>
#<Selenium::WebDriver::Element:0x000000000706edc8>
#<Selenium::WebDriver::Element:0x000000000706ed50>
#<Selenium::WebDriver::Element:0x000000000706ecd8>
Array
5
5

All the matching elements are returned as a Array object.

Array elements

To operate the elements, you need to get the element from the returned Array.

Input code

puts driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]')[0]
puts driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]')[0].class

Output

#<Selenium::WebDriver::Element:0x00000000070b7898>
Selenium::WebDriver::Element

Selenium returns the Element.

Case3(find_elements:No element)

[B.find_elements] If you specify a wrong class, Selenium will not get the elements.

Input code

puts driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="xxxx"]').class
puts driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="xxxx"]')
puts driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="xxxx"]').size

Output

Array
0

Selenium will return an empty Array.

Get the element

When you get an element from the empty Array as NilClass, an exception will occur.

Input code

puts driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="xxxx"]')[0].class
puts driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="xxxx"]')[0]
begin
  puts driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="xxxx"]')[0].click
rescue => error
  puts error
  puts error.class
end

Output

NilClass

undefined method `click' for nil:NilClass
NoMethodError

That is a Ruby exception, not a Selenium exception.

Case4(find_element:No element)

[A.find_element] If you specify a wrong class, an exception occurs.

Input code

begin
  driver.find_element(:xpath, '//a[@class="xxxx"]').click
rescue => error
  puts error
  puts error.class
end

Output

no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"//a[@class="xxxx"]"}
  (Session info: chrome=84.0.4147.89)
Selenium::WebDriver::Error::NoSuchElementError

That is a Selenium exception.

Case5(To operate)

find_element

[A.find_element]Operate the returned WebElement.

Input code

element = driver.find_element(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]')
element.click

find_elements

[B.find_elements]Get an element from the returned “Array".

Input code

driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]')[0].click

Exception of find_elements

[B.find_elements] The returned Array has no click method.

Input code

begin
  driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]').click
rescue => error
  puts error
  puts error.class
end

Output

undefined method `click' for #<Array:0x0000000007197600>
NoMethodError

An exception occurs.

existence check of the element

[B.find_elements] If Selenium does not get the element, no exception will be thrown. Therefore, it is used to check the existence of the element.

Input code

elements = driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="xxxx"]')
if elements.size == 0 then
  puts "No Element"
end

Output

No Element

Loop

[B.find_elements]

It stores the elements in an array. So it is used in a loop processing.

Sample1

Input code

driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]').each{|element|
  puts element.text
}

Output

Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4
Link5

Sample2

Input code

elements = driver.find_elements(:xpath, '//a[@class="link"]')
i=0
while i < elements.size do
  puts elements[i].text
  i += 1
end

Output

Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4
Link5

JavaScript

Sample code

let webdriver = require('selenium-webdriver');
let chrome = require('selenium-webdriver/chrome');
let By = webdriver.By;

(async () => {
    var driver = await new webdriver.Builder()
        .withCapabilities(webdriver.Capabilities.chrome())
        .setChromeService(new chrome.ServiceBuilder(
            "D:\\Selenium\\driver\\chromedriver.exe")
        )
        .build();    
    await driver.get("https://selenium-world.net/page/test_link1.html");

    //findElement
    var element = await driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']"));
    //findElements
    var elements = await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']"));
    await elements[0].click();
    await driver.quit();
})();

Node.js processes asynchronously. “async/await" controls the processing order.

Case1(findElement)

[A.findElement] Specify the class.

Input code

console.log(await driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")));

Output

WebElement {driver_: Driver, id_: Promise}

There are five elements that matched to the specified class, but the return value is one WebElement.
Selenium returns the first matching element.

Case2(findElements)

[B.findElements] Specify the class.

Input code

var elements = await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']"));
console.log(elements)
console.log(elements.constructor);

Output

(5) [WebElement, WebElement, WebElement, WebElement, WebElement]
ƒ Array()

All the matching elements are returned as “Array".

await

Write “await" before “driver", not before “console.log".

Input code

console.log(await driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")));
console.log(await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")));
await console.log(driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")));
await console.log(driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")));

Output

WebElement {driver_: Driver, id_: Promise}
(5) [WebElement, WebElement, WebElement, WebElement, WebElement]
WebElementPromise {driver_: Driver, id_: Promise, then: ƒ, catch: ƒ, getId: ƒ}
Promise {<pending>}

Array elements

[B.findElements]To operate the elements, you need to get the element from the returned Array.

Input code

var elements = await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']"));
console.log(elements[0]);

Output

WebElement {driver_: Driver, id_: Promise}

Selenium returns the WebElement.

Promise

You cannot get elements with the following code.

Input code

console.log(await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")));
console.log(await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']"))[0]);

Output

(5) [WebElement, WebElement, WebElement, WebElement, WebElement]
undefined

When you get it in one line, you need to use the “then" method.

Input code

console.log(await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")).then(elements => elements[0]));

Output

WebElement {driver_: Driver, id_: Promise}

Case3(findElements:No element)

[B.findElements] If you specify a wrong class, Selenium will not get the elements.

Input code

console.log(await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='xxxx']")));

Output

(0) []

Selenium will return an empty array.

Get the array element

When you get an element from the empty Array as “undefined", an exception will occur.

Input code

var elements = await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='xxxx']"));
try{
    console.log(elements[0]);
    await elements[0].click();
}catch(e) {
    console.log(e.name);
    console.log(e.message);
}

Output

undefined
TypeError
Cannot read property 'click' of undefined

That is a JavaScript exception, not a Selenium exception.

Case4(findElement:No elememnt)

[A.findElement] If you specify a wrong class, an exception occurs.

Input code

try{
    await driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[@class='xxxx']"));
}catch(e) {
    console.log(e.name);
    console.log(e.message);
}

Output

NoSuchElementError
find_element/index.js:34
no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"//a[@class='xxxx']"}
  (Session info: chrome=84.0.4147.89)

That is a Selenium exception.

Case5(To operate)

findElement

[A.findElement] Operate the returned WebElement.

Input code

await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")).click();

findElements

[B.findElements] Get an element from the returned “Array".

Input code

var elements = await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']"));
await elements[0].click();
//In the case using then method
await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']")).then(elements => elements[0].click());

Exception of find_elements

[B.findElements] The returned Array has no click method

Input code

var elements = await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']"));
try{        
    await elements.click();
}catch(e) {
    console.log(e.name);
    console.log(e.message);
}

Output

TypeError
elements.click is not a function

An exception occurs.

existence check of the element

[B.findElements] If Selenium does not get the element, no exception will be thrown. Therefore, it is used to check the existence of the element.

Input code

var elements = await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='xxxx']"));
if (elements.length == 0){
    console.log("No Element");
}

Output

No Element

Loop

[B.findElements] It stores the elements in a list (array). So it is used in a loop processing.

Sample1

Input code

let map = webdriver.promise.map;
var elements = await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']"));
var vals = await map(elements, element => element.getText()).then();
vals.forEach(val => console.log(val));

Output

Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4
Link5

Sample2

Input code

let map = webdriver.promise.map;
var elements = await driver.findElements(By.xpath("//a[@class='link']"));
var vals = await map(elements, element => element.getText()).then();
i=0
while(i < vals.length){
    console.log(vals[i]);
    i++;
}

Output

Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4
Link5

Summary

Pyhon

A.find_element

Get the element	driver.find_element_by_xpath(“XPath")
Return type	WebElement
No element	Ex:NoSuchElementException
Multiple elements	Selenium return the first matching element.

B.find_elements

Get the element	driver.find_elements_by_xpath(“XPath")[0]
Return type	list
No element	[](empty list)
Count elements	len(driver.find_elements_by_xpath(“XPath"))
Get element from the empty list	Ex:IndexErrorlist index out of range
Click the list object	Ex:AttributeError’list’ object has no attribute 'click’

Java

A.findElement

Get the element	driver.findElement(By.xpath(“XPath"));
Return type	RemoteWebElement
No element	Ex:NoSuchElementException
Multiple elements	Selenium return the first matching element.

B.findElements

Get the element	driver.findElements(By.xpath(“XPath")).get(0);
Return type	ArrayList
No element	[](empty ArrayList)
Count elements	driver.findElements(By.xpath(“XPath")).size();
Get element from the empty ArrayList	Ex:IndexOutOfBoundsException
Click the ArrayList object	Compilation error

C#

A.FindElement

Get the element	driver.FindElement(By.XPath(“XPath"));
Return type	IWebElement
No element	Ex:NoSuchElementException
Multiple elements	Selenium return the first matching element.

B.FindElements

Get the element	driver.FindElements(By.XPath(“XPath"))[0]
Return type	Collection
No element	Empty collection
Count elements	driver.FindElements(By.XPath(“XPath")).Count()
Get element from the empty collection	Ex:System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException
Click the collection	Compilation error

Ruby

A.find_element

Get the element	driver.find_element(:xpath, 'XPath’)
Return type	Selenium::WebDriver::Element
No element	NoSuchElementError
Multiple elements	Selenium return the first matching element.

B.find_elements

Get the element	driver.find_elements(:xpath, 'XPath’)[0]
Return type	Array
No element	Empty Array
Count elements	driver.find_elements(:xpath, 'XPath’).size
Count elements	driver.find_elements(:xpath, 'XPath’).length
Get element from the empty Array	NilClass
Click the Array object	Ex:NoMethodError:undefined method `click’ for #<Array>

JavaScript

A.findElement

Get the element	await driver.findElement(By.xpath(“//a[@class=’link’]"));
Return type	WebElement
No element	Ex:NoSuchElementError
Multiple elements	Selenium return the first matching element.

B.findElements

Get the element	await driver.findElements (By.xpath(“//a[@class=’link’]")) .then(elements => elements[0].click());
Get the element	var elements = await driver.findElements(By.xpath(“//a[@class=’link’]")); await elements[0].click();
Return type	Array
No element	Empty Array
Count elements	await driver.findElements (By.xpath(“//a[@class=’link’]")) .then(elements => elements.length)
Count elements	var elements = await driver.findElements(By.xpath(“//a[@class=’link’]")); elements.length;
Get element from the empty Array	undefined
Click the Array object	Ex:TypeError

2020-08-07Selenium Tipsfind_element,find_elements,findElement,findElements,no such element: Unable to locate element

Posted by sj