How to select an option from drop down using Selenium WebDriver C#?

Question

I was trying for my web test selecting an option. An example can be found here: http://www.tizag.com/phpT/examples/formex.php

Everything works great except the selecting an option part. How to selecting an option by value or by label?

My Code:

using OpenQA.Selenium.Firefox;
using OpenQA.Selenium;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.Threading;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
class GoogleSuggest
{
 static void Main()
 {
 IWebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
 //Notice navigation is slightly different than the Java version
 //This is because 'get' is a keyword in C#
 driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("http://www.tizag.com/phpT/examples/formex.php");
 IWebElement query = driver.FindElement(By.Name("Fname"));
 query.SendKeys("John");
 driver.FindElement(By.Name("Lname")).SendKeys("Doe");
 driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//input[@name='gender' and @value='Male']")).Click();
 driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//input[@name='food[]' and @value='Chicken']")).Click();
 driver.FindElement(By.Name("quote")).Clear();
 driver.FindElement(By.Name("quote")).SendKeys("Be Present!");
 driver.FindElement(By.Name("education")).SendKeys(Keys.Down + Keys.Enter); // working but that's not what i was looking for
 // driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//option[@value='HighSchool']")).Click(); not working
 // driver.FindElement(By.XPath("/html/body/table[2]/tbody/tr/td[2]/table/tbody/tr/td/div[5]/form/select/option[2]")).Click(); not working
 // driver.FindElement(By.XPath("id('examp')/x:form/x:select[1]/x:option[2]")).Click(); not working
 }
}

Answer 1

You must create a select element object from the drop down list.

 using OpenQA.Selenium.Support.UI;
 // select the drop down list
 var education = driver.FindElement(By.Name("education"));
 //create select element object 
 var selectElement = new SelectElement(education);
 //select by value
 selectElement.SelectByValue("Jr.High"); 
 // select by text
 selectElement.SelectByText("HighSchool");

More info here

• Greg Gauthier: There is a bug. var selectElement = new SelectElement(education); Should be: var selectElement = new SelectElement(element);
• James Lawruk: FYI: To use a Select Element, you need to include the Selenium Webdriver Support package which is a different NuGet package than the Selenium WebDriver. Include the namespace OpenQA.Selenium.Support.UI.
• Viswas Menon: I'm using the firefox driver , selenium version 2.53.1 and support library 2.53 , The SelectByText doesnt seem to be working. Im able to see all the options . Even if i iterate the options and set the correct value, The value is not getting set..Any help would be great
• Dan Csharpster: Did you try other drivers or just Firefox? Also, the package's technical name is currently Selenium.Support.
• Ray K: This worked great for me, had to add the Selenium.Support NuGet as well.

Answer 2

Adding a point to this- I came across a problem that OpenQA.Selenium.Support.UI namespace was not available after installing Selenium.NET binding into the C# project. Later found out that we can easily install latest version of Selenium WebDriver Support Classes by running the command:

Install-Package Selenium.Support

in NuGet Package Manager Console, or install Selenium.Support from NuGet Manager.

Answer 3

Other way could be this one:

driver.FindElement(By.XPath(".//*[@id='examp']/form/select[1]/option[3]")).Click();

and you can change the index in option[x] changing x by the number of element that you want to select.

I don't know if it is the best way but I hope that help you.

• Fractal: I'm not sure this works all the time. Someone did it this way and it didn't work and I ended up having to change to code to the code suggested by Matthew Lock

Answer 4

Selenium WebDriver C# code for selecting item from Drop Down:

IWebElement EducationDropDownElement = driver.FindElement(By.Name("education"));
SelectElement SelectAnEducation = new SelectElement(EducationDropDownElement);

There are 3 ways to select drop down item: i)Select by Text ii) Select by Index iii) Select by Value

Select by Text:

SelectAnEducation.SelectByText("College");//There are 3 items - Jr.High, HighSchool, College

Select by Index:

SelectAnEducation.SelectByIndex(2);//Index starts from 0. so, 0 = Jr.High 1 = HighSchool 2 = College

Select by Value:

SelectAnEducation.SelectByValue("College");//There are 3 values - Jr.High, HighSchool, College

Answer 5

To Select an Option Via Text;

(new SelectElement(driver.FindElement(By.XPath(""))).SelectByText("");

To Select an Option via Value:

 (new SelectElement(driver.FindElement(By.XPath(""))).SelectByValue("");

• Adam Miklosi: The Selenium.Support NuGet Package should be installed to use these solutions, but its working pretty well for me.

Answer 6

You just need to pass the value and enter key:

driver.FindElement(By.Name("education")).SendKeys("Jr.High"+Keys.Enter);

• Antti: Will likely fail if dropdown contains multiple options with similar texts.

Answer 7

This is how it works for me (selecting control by ID and option by text):

protected void clickOptionInList(string listControlId, string optionText)
{
 driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//select[@id='"+ listControlId + "']/option[contains(.,'"+ optionText +"')]")).Click();
}

use:

clickOptionInList("ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder_lbxAllRoles", "Tester");

Answer 8

If you are looking for just any selection from the drop-down box, I also find "select by index" method very useful.

if (IsElementPresent(By.XPath("//select[@id='Q43_0']")))
{
 new SelectElement(driver.FindElement(By.Id("Q43_0")))**.SelectByIndex(1);** // This is selecting first value of the drop-down list
 WaitForAjax();
 Thread.Sleep(3000);
}
else
{
 Console.WriteLine("Your comment here);
}

Answer 9

 var select = new SelectElement(elementX);
 select.MoveToElement(elementX).Build().Perform();
 var click = (
 from sel in select
 let value = "College"
 select value
 );

• Nander Speerstra: Please add an explanation to your code: why is it an answer to the question and what makes it different from the earlier given answers?

Answer 10

IWebElement element = _browserInstance.Driver.FindElement(By.XPath("//Select"));
IList<IWebElement> AllDropDownList = element.FindElements(By.XPath("//option"));
int DpListCount = AllDropDownList.Count;
for (int i = 0; i < DpListCount; i++)
{
 if (AllDropDownList[i].Text == "nnnnnnnnnnn")
 {
 AllDropDownList[i].Click();
 _browserInstance.ScreenCapture("nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn");
 }
}

• james: Works with dropdownlist selections

Answer 11

If you don't want to install an extra Nuget package ("Selenium Support") you can just execute JavaScript on the page

((IJavaScriptExecutor)driver)
 .ExecuteScript("document.getElementById('mySelect').value=123;");