A Relative XPath starts from anywhere in the HTML document using the double-slash // notation. It is the preferred approach in automation testing.
▸Syntax: Starts with
//XPATH
//input[@id=''username'']
//button[text()=''Login'']
//div[@class=''header'']//a[@href=''/home'']
Advantages over Absolute XPath:
- ✓Survives UI structural changes above the target element
- ✓Shorter, more readable
- ✓Supports powerful functions like
contains(),starts-with(),text()
Common patterns:
XPATH
//input[@name=''email'']
//button[text()=''Submit'']
//input[contains(@id,''user'')]
//input[starts-with(@class,''btn'')]
//div[@class=''form'']//input[@type=''text'']
//label[@for=''email'']/following-sibling::input