Finding elements by xpath pattern in Selenium python

Question

I am working with selenium python and lettuce to test django application.

There are many elements having xpath in the following pattern and i don't know how many of these elements exists in the document.

.//*[@id='accordion-note-1']
.//*[@id='accordion-note-2']
.//*[@id='accordion-note-3']
.//*[@id='accordion-note-4']

Is there any way to use pattern in driver.find_elements_by_xpath ?
Basically my purpose is to get all items having this pattern of xpath.

• splash58: If xpath 1.0 - .//*[starts-with(@id, 'accordion-note')]
• Mahammad Adil Azeem: I don't know what version i am using ? @splash58 ..... How to find out ?
• splash58: i dom't know about selenium too. If the answer below will return error, try my expression
• Mahammad Adil Azeem: @splash58 your answer worked very well. Below noor has edited his answer as well.

Answer 1

Not sure this will work, but you can try by using the below xpath:

.//*[starts-with(@id, 'accordion-note')]

here is the link http://www.zvon.org/xxl/XSLTreference/Output/function_starts-with.html

u can also use contain here like

.//*[contains(@id, 'accordion-note')] 

• Mahammad Adil Azeem: I have used your answer like this. world.driver.find_elements_by_xpath(".//*[matches(@id, 'accordion - IT - \\d+')]"). And this is the error i got this error. The given selector .//*[matches(@id, 'accordion - IT - \d+')] is either invalid or does not result in a WebElement.
• Mahammad Adil Azeem: It didn't worked out. Gonna try the upper comment. Please upvote the question as well so some one else might answer it.
• noor: @AdilMalik have u succedded?
• Mahammad Adil Azeem: Yes. Thanks Guys. So the point is we can use patterns in xpath ?
• noor: Let us continue this discussion in chat.