How to find element by part of its id name in selenium with python

Question

I'm using selenium with python,now I want to locate an element by part of its id name,what can I do?

For example,now I've already located a item by id name coption5 :

sixth_item = driver.find_element_by_id("coption5")

Is there anyway I can locate this element only by using coption?

Answer 1

To find the element which you have located with:

sixth_item = driver.find_element_by_id("coption5")

To locate this element only by using coption you can use can use either of the following Locator Strategies:

• Using XPATH and starts-with():

  sixth_item = driver.find_element_by_xpath("//*[starts-with(@id, 'coption')]")
  

• Using XPATH and contains():

  sixth_item = driver.find_element_by_xpath("//*[contains(@id, 'coption')]")
  

• Using CSS_SELECTOR and ^ (wildcard of starts-with):

  sixth_item = driver.find_element_by_css_selector("[id^='coption']")
  

• Using CSS_SELECTOR and * (wildcard of contains):

  sixth_item = driver.find_element_by_css_selector("[id*='coption']")
  

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Reference

You can find a detailed discussion on dynamic CssSelectors in:

• How to get selectors with dynamic part inside using Selenium with Python?
• Java Selenium webdriver expression finding dynamic element by ccs that starts with and ends with
• How to click a dynamic link with in a drupal 8 website using xpath/css selector while automating through Selenium and Python
• Finding elements by CSS selector with ChromeDriver (Selenium) in Python