XPath Using 'starts-with()'

'starts-with()' method is used to identify an element when one is familiar with the attribute value of an element. This method checks the starting text of an attribute. It is very handy to use when the attribute value changes on refresh or any operation on the webpage. We can also use this method to find the element whose attribute value is static.

For example:

Suppose the ID of particular element changes dynamically like:

• Id="message1"
• Id="message2"
• Id="message3"

Here we can see that the initial text is same. In this case, we can use start-with().

Syntax:

//tag[starts-with(@attribute, 'value')]

Example:

//input[starts-with(@id, 'user-message')]

 In the above example, XPath finds those element whose 'ID' starting with 'user-message'.