Locate Element

To automate data filling, element clicks, or scraping tasks, Excellent Data Filler requires precise DOM element addresses to identify target inputs, buttons, dropdowns, and text containers on a web page.

There are three primary methods used to locate any element on a webpage:

1. Element ID: The fastest and most direct locator when elements have unique, static HTML id attributes (e.g., #full_name).
2. CSS Selector Query: Versatile pattern matching based on HTML tags, class names, and attribute combinations (e.g., input.form-control[name="email"]).
3. XPath Address: Advanced XML path query language supporting bidirectional DOM traversal, text content matching, ancestor/child axes, and attribute negation (e.g., //input[@name="email"], //button[contains(text(),"Submit")]).

Inspect Elements with One Click

You don't need to manually inspect or construct element selectors by hand. Use the built-in Inspect Elements Tool (Alt + Shift + I) or right-click any page element (Alt + Shift + C for Selector, Alt + Shift + X for XPath) to automatically detect, test, and copy unique element addresses in real time.

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Basic Query Reference

Common CSS selector queries and equivalent XPath addresses for standard HTML input elements:

Element	HTML	Selector Query	XPath
	<input type="text"> <input type="email">	input[type='text'] input[type='email']	//input[@type="text"] //input[@type="email"]
	<input name="full_name">	input[name='full_name']	//input[@name="full_name"]
	<input id="full_name">	input[id='full_name'] input#full_name	//input[@id="full_name"]
	<input aria-describedby="full_name">	input[aria-describedby='full_name']	//input[@aria-describedby="full_name"]
	<input placeholder="Full Name">	input[placeholder='Full Name']	//input[@placeholder="Full Name"]
	<input readonly>	input[readonly]	//input[@readonly]
	<input disabled>	input[disabled]	//input[@disabled]
	<input type="text" class="input invalid">	input.invalid input[class='input invalid'] input[class*='invalid']	//input[@class='input invalid'] //input[contains(@class,"invalid")]
link	<a href="#" target="_blank">link</a>	a[href] a[href="#"] a[target="_blank"]	//a[@href] //a[@href="#"] //a[@target="_blank"] //a[text()="link"]
Male Female Other	<input type="radio" name="gender" value="male" checked> Male <input type="radio" name="gender" value="female"> Female <input type="radio" name="gender" value="other"> Other	input[type='radio'] input[name="gender"] input[value="other"] input[name="gender"][value="other"]	//input[@type="radio"] //input[@name="gender"] //input[@value="other"] //input[@name="gender"][@value="male"]
I have a debit card I have a credit card Other	<input type="checkbox" name="card1" value="debit" checked> I have a debit card <input type="checkbox" name="card2" value="credit"> I have a credit card <input type="checkbox" name="card3" value="other"> Other	input[type='checkbox'] input[name="card1"] input[value="credit"]	//input[@type="checkbox"] //input[@name="card1"] //input[@value="credit"]
Option 1Option 2Option 3Option 4	<select name="options">   <option value="op1">Option 1</option>   <option value="op2">Option 2</option>   <option value="op3">Option 3</option>   <option value="op4">Option 4</option> </select>	select[name='options']	//select[@name='options'] //select[@name="options"]/option[2] //select[@name="options"]/option[text()="Option 3"] //select[@name="options"]/option[contains(@value,"op4")]
	<textarea name="address" rows="2" cols="20"></textarea>	textarea[name='address']	//textarea[@name='address'] //textarea[@rows="2"] //textarea[@cols="20"]
	<input type="submit" value="Submit">	input[type='submit'] input[value='Submit']	//input[@type='submit'] //input[@value='Submit']
	<button type="button" alert onclick="alert('Alert Message')">Alert Dialog</button>	button[type='button'] button[onclick] button[alert]	//button[@type='button'] //button[@onclick] //button[@alert]
	<button type="button" confirm onclick="confirm('Confirm Message')">Confirm Dialog</button>	button[type='button'] button[onclick] button[confirm]	//button[@type='button'] //button[@onclick] //button[@confirm]
	<button type="button" id="prompt" prompt onclick="prompt('Please enter you age:')">Prompt Dialog</button>	button[type='button'] button[id='prompt'] button[prompt]	//button[@type='button'] //button[@id='prompt'] //button[@prompt]

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Advanced XPath Reference

Advanced XPath functions including contains(), starts-with(), boolean operators (and / or), DOM axis traversal (parent::*, position()), text matching, and attribute negation not():

Methods	Examples
Contains()	Element HTML XPath <input type="submit"> //input[contains(@type,"submit")] //input[contains(@type,"sub")] //*[contains(@type,"mit")] <button type="button" name="btn-login">Login</button> //button[contains(@name,"btn")] //button[contains(text(),"Log")] //*[contains(@type,"button")] <input type="text" name="last-name" id="lastName" class="input invalid" placeholder="Last Name" /> //*[@class="input invalid"] //input[contains(@class,"invalid")] //input[contains(@class,"inv")]
OR & AND	Element HTML XPath EmailPassword <form class="form-login">   <label for="inputEmail">Email</label>   <input type="email" id="inputEmail" placeholder="Email" />   <label for="inputPassword">Password</label>   <input type="password" id="inputPassword" placeholder="Password" /> </form> //form/input[@type="email" or @type="password"] //form/input[@type="email" and @id="inputEmail"] //form/input[@type="email" and @id] //form[@class="form-login"]/input[@id="inputPassword"] //form[@class="form-login"]/input[1] //form[@class="form-login"]/input[2]
starts-with(@attribute,value)	Element HTML XPath <button type="button" class="btn-primary">Primary</button> <button type="button" class="btn-secondary">Secondary</button> <button type="button" class="btn-success">Success</button> //button[starts-with(@class,"btn")] //button[starts-with(@type,"but")]
parent, position	XPath Description //td[text() =' SHG']/parent::*/td[position()=6]/a Find a td element with text "SHG", navigate to its parent, then select the 6th td child and get the anchor tag
Text Matching with OR	XPath Description //*[contains(text(),'Partial Text 1') or contains(text(),'Partial Text 2')] Match elements containing either "Partial Text 1" or "Partial Text 2" //*[text()='Exact Text 1' or text()='Exact Text 2'] Match elements with exact text "Exact Text 1" or "Exact Text 2" //*[text()='Exact Text' or contains(text(),'Partial Text')] Match elements with exact text "Exact Text" or containing "Partial Text"
not(@attribute)	Element HTML XPath <input type="text" placeholder="Active input"> <input type="text" disabled placeholder="Disabled input"> //input[not(@disabled)] //input[not(@readonly)] //tag_name[not(@attribute_name)] //button[not(@disabled) and contains(text(),"Submit")] Active Box Hidden Box <div class="card active">Active Box</div> <div class="card hidden">Hidden Box</div> //div[not(contains(@class,"hidden"))] //div[not(@id)] //div[@class="card"][not(contains(@class,"hidden"))]