How to compare two strings equal or not in Robot Framework

Question

How to compare two strings equal or not in Robot Framework. For example:

${xyz}=    Get Text    xpath=/html/body/div/div[2]/div[3]/div/div/div/div/h3
${abc}=    Get Text    xpath=/html/body/div/div[2]/div[4]/div/div/div/div/h3

These xpath values are getting different strings. So how to compare there strings equal or not?

Is it correct way to storing the values in variable in Robot Framework?

Answer 1

Yes, that is the correct way of storing variables. Though you can also do it without the equal sign:

${xyz}    Get Text    xpath=/html/body/div/div[2]/div[3]/div/div/div/div/h3
${abc}    Get Text    xpath=/html/body/div/div[2]/div[4]/div/div/div/div/h3

Now that you have the two different strings assigned to variables, you can simply do:

Should Be Equal As Strings    ${xyz}    ${abc}

You can see the documentation for Should Be Equal As Strings here .

Answer 2

An alternative to Should Be Equal As Strings is to use Should Be True - it evaluates the provided argument as python expression (eg "something that can be substituted with a value") and fails if it turns up False :

Should Be True     """${variable 1}""" == """${variable 1}"""

It's a good practice to use triple quotes when you don't have control over the values (eg when taken from external source - a web page) - this construct permits the value to have quotes or newlines in it, without causing syntax error.

Though this approach can be a bit cumbersome for simple checks, it is quite powerful - you can use whatever python provides. For example, if the check should be case insensitive:

Should Be True     """${variable 1}""".lower() == """${variable 1}""".lower()

Or if any starting/trailing whitespace is insignificant:

Should Be True     """${variable 1}""".strip() == """${variable 1}""".strip()

Or, is one string a part of another:

Should Be True     """${variable 1}""" in """${variable 1}"""