How to find an element using text through Selenium C#

Question

I have the following html:

<p class="k-reset"><a class="k-icon k-i-expand" href="#" tabindex="-1"></a>Unit: QA Room: 1</p>

I can't seem to get valid syntax to click on this element. I've tried the following:

IWebElement webElement5 = Driver.Instance.FindElement(By.XPath("//a[@class='k-icon k-i-expand']"));
webElement5.Click();

IWebElement webElement5 = Driver.Instance.FindElement(By.XPath("//p[text(), 'Unit: QA Room: 1']"));
webElement5.Click();

When I try to use the text(), I get an error stating that it is not a valid XPath expression. Everywhere I look on the internet uses that syntax. I'm very new to c#/Selenium/XPath values. Any help is very much appreciated.

Answer 1

You mixed partial syntax of contains

"//p[contains(text(), 'Unit: QA Room: 1')]"

For direct match use =

"//p[text()='Unit: QA Room: 1']"

Answer 2

To click on the element you can use either of the following solution:

• CssSelector :

   Driver.Instance.FindElement(By.CssSelector("pk-reset>ak-icon.ki-expand")).Click();

• XPath 1 :

   Driver.Instance.FindElement(By.XPath("//p[@class='k-reset']/a[@class='k-icon ki-expand']")).Click();

• XPath 2 :

   Driver.Instance.FindElement(By.XPath("//p[@class='k-reset' and normalize-space()='Unit: QA Room: 1']")).Click();