Example: WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id("elementId"));

Example: List<WebElement> elements = driver.findElements(By.className("elementClass"));

Aspect	FindElement	FindElements
Purpose	FindElement Locate a single web element	FindElements Locate multiple web elements
Return Type	FindElement returns a WebElement	FindElements return List<WebElement>
Locator Strategies	FindElement supports ID, name, class name, etc.	FindElements supports ID, name, class name, etc.
Behavior if Not Found	FindElement throws NoSuchElementException	FindElements returns an empty list
First Matching Element	It returns the first matching element	It returns all matching elements
Example	WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id(“elementId”));	List<WebElement> elements = driver.findElements(By.className(“elementClass”));
Common Use Cases	Actions on a single element (click, type)	Actions on multiple elements (iteration, bulk actions)

FindElement in Selenium command Syntax (with explanation)

Syntax of FindElement

WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.locator("value"));

Explanation of Syntax of FindElement

• WebElement: The type of object that represents a web element on a webpage.
• element: The variable name for the web element you are locating.
• driver: The instance of WebDriver you are using to control the browser.
• findElement: The method used to locate a single web element.
• By.locator(“value”): The strategy for finding the element. By is a class providing various locator strategies.

Various Locator Strategies

Various Locator Strategies are:

• By.id(“elementId”): Locate by the element’s ID attribute.
• By.name(“elementName”): Locate by the element’s name attribute.
• By.className(“elementClass”): Locate by the element’s class name.
• By.tagName(“tagName”): Locate by the element’s tag name.
• By.linkText(“linkText”): Locate by the exact text of a link.
• By.partialLinkText(“partialText”): Locate by a portion of the link text.
• By.cssSelector(“cssSelector”): Locate using a CSS selector.
• By.xpath(“xpathExpression”): Locate using an XPath expression.

Example

WebElement loginButton = driver.findElement(By.id("loginButton"));

• WebElement loginButton: This declares a variable loginButton of type WebElement.
• driver.findElement: This calls the findElement method on the driver object.
• By.id(“loginButton”): This uses the ID locator strategy to find the element with the ID “loginButton”.

Find Elements in Selenium command Syntax

Syntax of FindElements

List<WebElement> elements = driver.findElements(By.locator("value"));

Explanation of Syntax

• List<WebElement>: A list that holds multiple WebElement objects.
• elements: The variable name for the list of web elements you are locating.
• driver: The instance of WebDriver you are using to control the browser.
• findElements: The method used to locate multiple web elements.
• By.locator(“value”): The strategy for finding the elements. By is a class providing various locator strategies.

Example

List<WebElement> buttons = driver.findElements(By.className("buttonClass"));

• List<WebElement> buttons: This declares a variable buttons that holds a list of WebElement objects.
• driver.findElements: This calls the findElements method on the driver object.
• By.className(“buttonClass”): This uses the class name locator strategy to find all elements with the class name “buttonClass”.

Related Articles:

• How can we Find an Element using Selenium? – GeeksforGeeks
• Find Web Elements using Selenium WebDriver
• Difference Between WebDriver and Web Element?
• Python – find_element() method in Selenium

Conclusion

In conclusion, the findElement and findElements methods in Selenium are used to locate web elements on a webpage. findElement is for finding a single element and will throw an exception if no element is found. In contrast, findElements is for finding multiple elements and will return an empty list if no elements match the criteria. Choose findElement when you expect a single match and findElements when you need to interact with multiple elements.