SoFunction
Updated on 2025-04-11

How to locate elements containing text information in Python

In Python programming, especially when performing web page automation testing or data scraping, locate elements containing specific text information is a common requirement. With the right tools and libraries, these elements can be found and manipulated efficiently. This article will introduce in detail how to locate elements containing text information in Python and give detailed code examples.

1. Theoretical Overview

In Python, the Selenium library is usually used to locate web elements. Selenium is a powerful tool for automating web application testing and supports a variety of browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, etc. It provides a complete set of APIs for finding and manipulating elements on web pages.

In Selenium, there are mainly the following methods to locate elements:

  • By ID: Positioning through the element's ID attribute.
  • By Name: Positioning through the element's name attribute.
  • By Class Name: Positioning through the element's class attribute.
  • By Tag Name: Positioning by the element's label name.
  • By Link Text: Positioning through full link text.
  • By Partial Link Text: Positioning through partial link text.
  • By CSS Selector: Positioning through the CSS selector.
  • By XPath: Positioning through XPath expression.

in,By Link TextandBy Partial Link TextIs a link element that contains specific text information. In addition, combining XPath and CSS Selector can also achieve more complex text matching.

2. Environment configuration

Before you start, you need to make sure that the Selenium library and corresponding browser drivers are installed. Here are the commands to install the Selenium library:

pip install selenium

For Chrome browsers, you also need to download ChromeDriver and add its path to the system PATH, or specify its path in the code.

3. Code examples

Here are several detailed code examples showing how to use Selenium to locate elements containing text information.

1. Example 1: Positioning through complete link text

Suppose we have a web page where the text with a link is "Click Here".

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Sample Page</title>
</head>
<body>
    <a href="" rel="external nofollow" >Click Here</a>
</body>
</html>

Here is the Python code to locate this link through the full link text using Selenium:

from selenium import webdriver
from  import By
from  import Keys
import time
 
# Configure the driver path of Chrome browser (if required)# driver_path = '/path/to/chromedriver'
# options = ()
# driver = (executable_path=driver_path, options=options)
 
# If the system PATH has been configured, you can use it directlydriver = ()
 
try:
    # Open the landing page    ('file:///path/to/sample_page.html')
    
    # Wait for the page to load (adjust the waiting time as needed)    (2)
    
    # Position elements through full link text    link = driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, 'Click Here')
    
    # Output link's href attribute    print(link.get_attribute('href'))
    
    # Click on the link (optional)    # ()
    
finally:
    # Close the browser    ()

2. Example 2: Positioning through partial link text

Suppose we have a web page where the text with a link is "Click Here for More Information". We can use the partial link text "for More" to locate this link.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Sample Page</title>
</head>
<body>
    <a href="/more" rel="external nofollow" >Click Here for More Information</a>
</body>
</html>

Here is the Python code to locate this link through partial link text using Selenium:

from selenium import webdriver
from  import By
import time
 
driver = ()
 
try:
    # Open the landing page    ('file:///path/to/sample_page_partial.html')
    
    # Wait for the page to load (adjust the waiting time as needed)    (2)
    
    # Position elements through partial link text    link = driver.find_element(By.PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT, 'for More')
    
    # Output link's href attribute    print(link.get_attribute('href'))
    
    # Click on the link (optional)    # ()
    
finally:
    # Close the browser    ()

3. Example 3: Positioning elements containing specific text via XPath

XPath is a language for finding information in XML documents, and it also works for HTML documents. Suppose we have a web page, and there is one<div>The element contains the text "Welcome to Our Website".

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Sample Page</title>
</head>
<body>
    <div>Welcome to Our Website</div>
</body>
</html>

Here is how to locate this using Selenium via XPath<div>Python code for elements:

from selenium import webdriver
from  import By
import time
 
driver = ()
 
try:
    # Open the landing page    ('file:///path/to/sample_page_xpath.html')
    
    # Wait for the page to load (adjust the waiting time as needed)    (2)
    
    # Positioning elements containing specific text through XPath    element = driver.find_element(, "//div[contains(text(), 'Welcome to Our Website')]")
    
    # Output element's text content    print()
    
finally:
    # Close the browser    ()

4. Example 4: Positioning elements containing specific text through CSS Selector

A CSS selector is a pattern for finding elements in an HTML document, and it can also be used to locate elements containing specific text. Although the CSS selector itself does not directly support text matching, similar functionality can be achieved by combining other properties and pseudo-classes. However, for simple text matching, it is usually more direct to using XPath.

However, if we know a certain attribute of the element (e.g.class) and matching text is required, which can be used in combination. Suppose we have a web page, and there is one<span>element, itsclassyesgreeting, and contains the text "Hello World".

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Sample Page</title>
</head>
<body>
    <span class="greeting">Hello World</span>
</body>
</html>

Although the CSS selector cannot directly locate elements containing "Hello World", we can first passclassPosition, and then filter the text:

from selenium import webdriver
from  import By
import time
 
driver = ()
 
try:
    # Open the landing page    ('file:///path/to/sample_page_css.html')
    
    # Wait for the page to load (adjust the waiting time as needed)    (2)
    
    # Position all elements through class and filter text    elements = driver.find_elements(By.CSS_SELECTOR, '.greeting')
    for element in elements:
        if 'Hello World' in :
            print()
            break  # Assume that there is only one matching element, exit the loop after finding it    
finally:
    # Close the browser    ()

4. Summary

This article details how to use the Selenium library in Python to locate elements containing text information. Through sample code, it shows how to locate elements through complete link text, partial link text, XPath and CSS selectors, etc. These tips are very useful in web page automation testing and data crawling, and can help developers find and manipulate elements on web pages efficiently.

This is the end of this article about how Python locates elements containing text information. For more related content of Python locates, please search for my previous articles or continue browsing the related articles below. I hope everyone will support me in the future!