Relative XPath

A Relative XPath is the path which starts from the node of our choice and is prefixed with a ' // '. It doesn't need to start from the root node.

For example:

//span[@class = 'Email']

Pros

• It starts from the node of our choice
• It is readable and shorter than Absolute XPath
• It works even after structural change

Cons

• It takes more time to identify element as we specify the partial path
• If there are multiple elements for the same path, it will select the first element that is identified

Let's take a look at a Relative XPath below:

//li[@id = 'ogbkddg:4']

Here, //li[@id = 'ogbkddg:4'] is a Relative XPath and as we can see it did not start from the root node and started from the node of our choice. It is also short and very easy to read. Even if there is any kind of structural change, it will work just fine.