Find Element and FindElements in Selenium WebDriver

Need for Find Element and FindElements command?

A user is required to interact with a web page to locate the web element. The command Find Element is used to uniquely locate a web element within the web page. Whereas, the command FindElements is used to locate the list of web elements within the web page uniquely. There are many ways to identify a web element within the web page like Name, ID, Link Text, Partial Link Text, ClassName, XPath,  and Tag Name.

Selenium FindElement Command:

FindElement command uses By object as a parameter and returns an object of type WebElement. By object can be used with different locator strategies like Name, ID, ClassName, XPath, LinkText, etc.

Syntax of FindElement Command

WebElement elementName = driver.findElement(By.LocatorStrategy(“LocatorValue”));

Following are the Locator Strategy values:

• Name
• ID
• Tag Name
• Class Name
• Link Text
• XPath
• Partial Link Text

Locator Value is the value through which a web element can be identified uniquely. It is the developer’s and tester’s job to make sure that web elements are identified uniquely with properties like Name or ID.

Selenium FindElements Command:

FindElements command uses By object as the parameter and returns a list of web elements. It returns an empty list if no elements are found when given locator strategy and locator value. 

 Syntax of FindElements Command

List<WebElement> elementName =     driver.findElements(By.LocatorStragety(“LocatorValue”));

 

Difference between findElement and find Elements Methods

findElement	findElements
Return single element	Returns a list of elements
It returns only first element when multiple elements are found using the same locator	Return all elements from a list of web elements
If no matching element found, throw NoSuchElementFound Exception	If no matching element found, then it will return an empty list
Return single element	To get the element from the list, we need to iterate over it
Apply to find element method over element found	Not possible to apply
Not Applicable	Each Web Element is indexed with 0 number just like an array

 

How to use Selenium findElement Command

The below application is used for demo purpose:

https://www.facebook.com/ 

Scenario:

1. Open the https://www.facebook.com/ for AUT
2. Find and click the radio button

package  com.testing.selenium.findelement;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

public class FindElement {
public static void main(String[] args) {

// TODO Auto-generated method stub

System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "D:\\Drivers\\chromedriver.exe");

WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

driver.manage().window().maximize();

driver.get("https://www.facebook.com/");

//Find the radio button for Gender "Male" by using its ID and click on it

driver.findElement(By.id("u_0_7")).click();

       }

}

 

How to use Selenium find Elements Command

The below application is used for demo purpose:

https://www.facebook.com/ 

Scenario:

1. Open the https://www.facebook.com/ for AUT
2. Find the text of radio buttons and print on console

package com.testing.selenium.findelements;

import java.util.List;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

public class  FindElements {
public static  void main(String[] args) {

// TODO Auto-generated method stub

System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "D:\\Drivers\\chromedriver.exe");

WebDriver driver =  new ChromeDriver();

driver.manage().window().maximize();

driver.get("https://www.facebook.com/");

//Find the radio button for Gender "Male" by using its ID

List<WebElement> elements = driver.findElements(By.id("u_0_7"));

System.out.println("Number of elements:" +elements.size());

       for(int i=0;  i<elements.size();  i++){

       System.out.println("Radio button text:" + elements.get(i).getAttribute("value"));

       }

  }

}

Conclusion

• The Find Element command returns a single element that matches the first element within the web page.
• The Find Elements command returns a list of elements.
• The Find Element command throws NoSuchElementException if no matching element found.
• The Find Elements command returns an empty list if no matching element found, it will return an empty list.