Selenium: How to click a button using the button label?

Question

In the HTML code like this:

<a class="test-class">
 <div class="test-content">
 <div class="test-time" data-start="12:13pm" data-full="12:13 PM - 12:50 PM">
 <span>12:13pm - 12:50pm</span>
 </div>
 <div class="test-title">Classes Name</div>
 </div>
 <div class="test-bg"></div>
</a>

I am trying to click <a class="test-class"">. However, I need to locate that element by text 12:13pm - 12:50pm from <span>12:13pm - 12:50pm</span> , which is not visible from front-end.

Is there a way to get XPath of <a class="test-class"">?

Answer 1

If you want to match the "a" element you would need to use ancestor

//span[text()='12:13pm - 12:50pm']/ancestor::a[@class='test-class']

• Lehtia: Cool! It works for me! Thx for your help!

Answer 2

As per the code shared above, any of the following two x-paths can be used to locate the element by using the text mentioned in the question.

To search element by exact text:

 //a[@class='test-class']//span[text()='12:13pm - 12:50pm']

or

Below x-path is for like search. This will give you flexibility to use unique part of the text

(in case, there are multiple elements with similar text).

//a[@class='test-class']//span[contains(text(),'12:13pm - 12:50pm')]

• Lehtia: Thx for your help. But when i try to use this xpath, i am not able to locate the element as it is not visible. As i mentioned in the question, the text is not visible for front-end, i think it might be the reason. But @George McConnon 's answer works for me.
• Aalok: Sorry mate. But, I am glad that the other answer worked for you and your problem is resolved.

Answer 3

Agree with above answers. Wanted to add few points:

Solution 1 -

• This solution is working currently with me.

   driver.findElement(By.xpath("//div[. = '12:13pm - 12:50pm']")).click();
  

• But its has one barrier. Can't user for other than english's some special characters. Avoided in next solution 2

Solution 2 -

• This is good fit solution if you are using string or text with special characters, white spaces.

   String label = "12:13pm - 12:50pm";
   String string = String.format("//button[contains(.,'%s')]", label);
   driver.findElement(By.xpath(string));
  

• I got solution from here