60+ XPath examples · Copy-ready

XPath Examples Library

Copy-ready XPath examples grouped by use case: basic selection, attributes, text, axes, functions, Selenium patterns, and web scraping scenarios. Click “Try it” to load each pattern in the playground with its HTML snippet.

Open playground Cheat sheet Selenium guide Web scraping

Basic Selection

6 examples

Basic Selection

//div

Selects every div element.

Preview: <div class="container">…</div>

HTML snippet

<div class="container">
  <p>First paragraph</p>
  <p>Second paragraph</p>
</div>

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Basic Selection

//div/p

Only paragraphs that are direct children of div.

Preview: <p>First paragraph</p>

HTML snippet

<div class="container">
  <p>First paragraph</p>
  <p>Second paragraph</p>
</div>

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Basic Selection

//div//p

Paragraphs under div at any depth.

Preview: <p>Second paragraph</p>

HTML snippet

<div class="container">
  <p>First paragraph</p>
  <p>Second paragraph</p>
</div>

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Basic Selection

/html/body/div[1]

The first div in the body.

Preview: <div id="one"></div>

HTML snippet

<body><div id="one"></div><div id="two"></div></body>

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Basic Selection

//div[@id='main']

Matches a div whose id is main.

Preview: <div id="main"></div>

HTML snippet

<div id="main"></div><div id="secondary"></div>

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Basic Selection

//div[@class='item']

Class equals item (not contains).

Preview: <div class="item"></div>

HTML snippet

<div class="item"></div><div class="item active"></div>

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Attributes

8 examples

Attributes

//input[@type='text']

Attribute equals text.

Preview: <input type="text" />

HTML snippet

<input type="text" /><input type="email" />

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Attributes

//div[contains(@class, 'btn')]

Substring check for class values.

Preview: <div class="btn primary"></div>

HTML snippet

<div class="btn primary"></div><div class="card"></div>

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Attributes

//a[starts-with(@href, 'https')]

Secure links only.

Preview: <a href="https://site.com">Secure</a>

HTML snippet

<a href="https://site.com">Secure</a><a href="/home">Home</a>

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Attributes

//img[@alt and @src]

Images with both alt and src.

Preview: <img alt="logo" src="logo.png" />

HTML snippet

<img alt="logo" src="logo.png" /><img src="missing.png" />

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Attributes

//div[@data-id='123']

Custom data attributes.

Preview: <div data-id="123"></div>

HTML snippet

<div data-id="123"></div><div data-id="456"></div>

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Attributes

//*[@*]

Nodes that have at least one attribute.

Preview: <div class="box"></div>

HTML snippet

<div class="box"></div><span>No attr</span>

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Attributes

//div[not(@class)]

Div elements lacking class.

Preview: <div></div>

HTML snippet

<div></div><div class="has"></div>

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Attributes

//input[@disabled]

Boolean attribute presence.

Preview: <input disabled />

HTML snippet

<input disabled /><input />

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Text Selection

6 examples

Text Selection

//p[text()='Login']

Match exact text in a <p> tag.

Preview: <p>Login</p>

HTML snippet

<p>Login</p><p>Logout</p>

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Text Selection

//p[contains(text(), 'Welcome')]

Substring search on text nodes.

Preview: <p>Welcome back</p>

HTML snippet

<p>Welcome back</p><p>Hello</p>

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Text Selection

//div[normalize-space()='Submit']

Ignore surrounding whitespace.

Preview: <div> Submit </div>

HTML snippet

<div> Submit </div><div>Cancel</div>

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Text Selection

//*[text()]

Elements that contain text nodes.

Preview: <span>Label</span>

HTML snippet

<span>Label</span><div><b>Bold</b></div>

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Text Selection

//div[not(text())]

Silent container divs.

Preview: <div></div>

HTML snippet

<div></div><div>Text</div>

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Text Selection

//p[string-length(text()) > 10]

Text nodes longer than 10 chars.

Preview: <p>More than ten</p>

HTML snippet

<p>Short</p><p>More than ten</p>

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Axes

10 examples

Axes

//div/parent::*

The parent of every div.

Preview: <section><div>Item</div></section>

HTML snippet

<section><div>Item</div></section>

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Axes

//div/child::p

Child paragraphs of divs.

Preview: <p>One</p>

HTML snippet

<div><p>One</p><span>Two</span></div>

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Axes

//div/following-sibling::p

Next paragraphs after divs.

Preview: <p>Next</p>

HTML snippet

<div></div><p>Next</p>

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Axes

//div/preceding-sibling::p

Paragraphs before a div.

Preview: <p>Before</p>

HTML snippet

<p>Before</p><div></div>

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Axes

//div/ancestor::section

Section ancestors of div.

Preview: <section><div></div></section>

HTML snippet

<section><div></div></section>

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Axes

//div/descendant::span

Spans under div.

Preview: <span>Hi</span>

HTML snippet

<div><p><span>Hi</span></p></div>

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Axes

//div/following::*[1]

Immediate following node.

Preview: <p>After</p>

HTML snippet

<div></div><p>After</p><p>Later</p>

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Axes

//div/preceding::*[1]

Immediate node before div.

Preview: <p>Before</p>

HTML snippet

<p>Before</p><div></div>

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Axes

//li/ancestor-or-self::ul

Lists that contain li or li itself.

Preview: <ul><li>Item</li></ul>

HTML snippet

<ul><li>Item</li></ul>

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Axes

//input/parent::*/following-sibling::label

Labels next to input parents.

Preview: <label for="i">Email</label>

HTML snippet

<div><input id="i" /></div><label for="i">Email</label>

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Functions

12 examples

Functions

//div[count(p) > 2]

Div elements with more than 2 p children.

Preview: <div>…3 p elements…</div>

HTML snippet

<div><p>a</p><p>b</p><p>c</p></div>

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Functions

//p[position() = 1]

First paragraph in each context.

Preview: <p>First</p>

HTML snippet

<p>First</p><p>Second</p>

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Functions

//p[last()]

Last paragraph sibling.

Preview: <p>Last</p>

HTML snippet

<p>First</p><p>Last</p>

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Functions

//div[name() = 'div']

Name() function usage.

Preview: <div></div>

HTML snippet

<div></div>

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Functions

//div[local-name() = 'div']

Local-name demonstration.

Preview: <div></div>

HTML snippet

<div></div>

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Functions

//p[string-length(text()) > 10]

Text longer than 10 characters.

Preview: <p>more than ten</p>

HTML snippet

<p>short</p><p>more than ten</p>

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Functions

//div[concat(@class, '-suffix')]

Concat returns non-empty string so condition truthy.

Preview: <div class="box"></div>

HTML snippet

<div class="box"></div>

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Functions

//p[substring(text(), 1, 5) = 'Hello']

Substring match at start.

Preview: <p>Hello world</p>

HTML snippet

<p>Hello world</p><p>Welcome</p>

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Functions

//div[translate(@class, 'ABC', 'abc')]

Normalize class casing.

Preview: <div class="ABC"></div>

HTML snippet

<div class="ABC"></div>

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Functions

//input[number(@value) > 100]

Numeric comparison on attribute.

Preview: <input value="120" />

HTML snippet

<input value="120" /><input value="50" />

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Functions

//div[boolean(@data-active)]

Truthy data-active attribute.

Preview: <div data-active="true"></div>

HTML snippet

<div data-active="true"></div><div></div>

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Functions

//p[normalize-space(text())]

Paragraphs with non-empty text after trimming.

Preview: <p> hi </p>

HTML snippet

<p>  hi </p><p>   </p>

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Selenium Common Patterns

15 examples

Selenium Common Patterns

//button[text()='Submit']

Exact text button.

Preview: <button>Submit</button>

HTML snippet

<button>Submit</button><button>Cancel</button>

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Selenium Common Patterns

//a[@href='/login']

Target login link.

Preview: <a href="/login">Login</a>

HTML snippet

<a href="/login">Login</a>

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Selenium Common Patterns

//input[@name='username']

Form field by name.

Preview: <input name="username" />

HTML snippet

<input name="username" /><input name="password" />

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Selenium Common Patterns

//table//tr[2]//td[3]

Second row, third cell.

Preview: <td>B3</td>

HTML snippet

<table><tr><td>A1</td></tr><tr><td>B1</td><td>B2</td><td>B3</td></tr></table>

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Selenium Common Patterns

//ul[@class='menu']/li[last()]

Last list item.

Preview: <li>Three</li>

HTML snippet

<ul class="menu"><li>One</li><li>Two</li><li>Three</li></ul>

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Selenium Common Patterns

//div[contains(@class, 'error') and contains(@class, 'visible')]

Error and visible flags.

Preview: <div class="error visible"></div>

HTML snippet

<div class="error visible"></div>

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Selenium Common Patterns

//button[@type='submit' or @class='submit-btn']

Match either submit type or class.

Preview: <button class="submit-btn">Go</button>

HTML snippet

<button class="submit-btn">Go</button>

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Selenium Common Patterns

//*[@id='main']//p[not(@class)]

Paragraphs inside main without class.

Preview: <p>Clean</p>

HTML snippet

<div id="main"><p>Clean</p><p class="muted">Muted</p></div>

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Selenium Common Patterns

//div[@data-test-id='login-form']//input

Inputs inside login form container.

Preview: <input />

HTML snippet

<div data-test-id="login-form"><input /><input /></div>

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Selenium Common Patterns

//iframe[@name='content']//*

Any node inside iframe.

Preview: <p>Hi</p>

HTML snippet

<iframe name="content"><html><body><p>Hi</p></body></html></iframe>

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Selenium Common Patterns

//select[@name='country']/option[@selected]

Currently selected option.

Preview: <option selected>CA</option>

HTML snippet

<select name="country"><option>US</option><option selected>CA</option></select>

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Selenium Common Patterns

//input[@type='checkbox' and @checked]

Checked boxes.

Preview: <input type="checkbox" checked />

HTML snippet

<input type="checkbox" checked /><input type="checkbox" />

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Selenium Common Patterns

//div[starts-with(@id, 'dynamic-')]

IDs generated dynamically.

Preview: <div id="dynamic-123"></div>

HTML snippet

<div id="dynamic-123"></div><div id="static"></div>

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Selenium Common Patterns

//span[contains(text(), 'Error') and @class='msg']

Error messages with class msg.

Preview: <span class="msg">Error occurred</span>

HTML snippet

<span class="msg">Error occurred</span>

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Selenium Common Patterns

//*[text()='Next']/parent::button

Locate a parent button from text.

Preview: <button><span>Next</span></button>

HTML snippet

<button><span>Next</span></button>

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Web Scraping

5 examples

Web Scraping

//article//h2/text()

Extract article titles without tags.

Preview: Text nodes are handy when scraping.

HTML snippet

<article><h2>Headline</h2><p>Story</p></article>

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Web Scraping

//a[@rel='nofollow']/@href

Grab outbound or promo links.

Preview: Attributes can be returned directly.

HTML snippet

<a href="/promo" rel="nofollow">Promo</a>

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Web Scraping

//div[not(contains(@class,'ad'))]//img/@src

Skip ad slots while collecting images.

Preview: Combine not() with contains().

HTML snippet

<div class="ad"><img src="ad.png"></div><div class="post"><img src="hero.jpg"></div>

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Web Scraping

//ul[@class='products']/li[position()<=3]

Top 3 items only.

Preview: Position filtering keeps results small.

HTML snippet

<ul class="products"><li>A</li><li>B</li><li>C</li><li>D</li></ul>

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Web Scraping

//meta[@property='og:title']/@content

Grab Open Graph title for previews.

Preview: Meta tags are attributes only.

HTML snippet

<meta property="og:title" content="Demo" />

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