python : selenium need parameter text using Xpath

Question

The HTML code is

<div class="_4w5j">
    <strong>
        <span>username</span>
    </strong>
    <span class="_-kj">—</span>
    <span class="_4w5k">
        <i class="img sp_4YfKd3lpYjo sx_5f57b1">
            <u>5 star</u>
        </i>
    </span>
    <span>xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</span>
</div>

I need the text "username" inside strong/spam It is works for me the code is

x= i.find_elements_by_xpath('//div[@class="_4w5j"]/strong')

for d in x:
    print d.text

It's print the correct result

I need the text of 'x'inside the span[3] 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' the below code also works good.

Question:

I need the text inside the u tag '5 star'. I used the below code but it prints the empty result.

y= i.find_elements_by_xpath('//div[@class="_4w5j"]/descendant::u')
for d in y:
    print d.text

I tried this also

y= i.find_elements_by_xpath('//div[@class="_4w5j"]/span[2]/i/u')
for d in y:
    print d.text

Not working for me. Please help me . Thanks in advance

<a class="uiLinkSubtle" href="/sherryl.cheary/activity/10152833559161998">
<abbr class="timestamp" data-utime="1419713801" title="Saturday, December 27, 2014 at 12:56pm">about a month ago</abbr>
</a>

I need the text inside the title but the below code sh

z= i.find_elements_by_xpath('//a/descendant::abbr/@title')
for dd in z:
    print dd.text

Its shows the error called " web element has no attr title or some thing wrong in xpath"

can u try with xpath: //span class='_4w5k' and then do element.text? — Vivek Singh
and for second part can you do use xpath: //abbr[@class='timestamp'] and then call get_attribute("title"). I have never worked in python, so please check the signature of get_attribute method. Thanks — Vivek Singh
the xpath shows Error //span class='_4w5k' is either invalid or does not result in a WebElement — AnandhaKumar Radhakrishnan
sorry my mistake "//span[@class='_4w5k']". Just forgot to put square brackets. — Vivek Singh
use css selectors, xpaths are not stable at all. To find <u elem you can use next selector : "._4w5j > i > u" — Andrey Egorov

John Hua John Hua · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-05T07:30:50

i.find_elements_by_xpath('//div[@class="_4w5j"]/span//u')[0].text

i.find_elements_by_xpath('//a/abbr')[0].get_attribute('title')

python : selenium need parameter text using Xpath

2 Answers