Normalize Space XPath Selenium

normalize-space is a function in XPath which ignores all redundant spaces in a target string HTML element and and returns the resulting string. Here redundant space means:

1. Leading Space
2. Trailing Space
3. Repeated White Space (replaces sequences of whitespace characters by a single space)

Also, it Removes all new lines and tabs present in a string

Table of Contents

1. Syntax
2. Demo Website
3. Using Contains Function
4. Normalize-space with Text Function
5. Normalize-space with Contains Function
6. Normalize-space with attribute
7. Normalize-space with attribute and contains

Syntax

normalize-space( [string] )

• Argument: string (optional). The string to be normalized. If omitted, string used will be the same as the context node converted to a string.
• Returns: The normalized string. normalize-space() function takes a string argument and matches the attribute values present on the webpage.

Demo Website

Link for demo website: Auto Pract Normalize Page

<div id = "container">
    <div class=" my class 1"> space in beginning and end </div>
    <div class=" my     class 2"> space      in             between </div>
    <div class = "my class 3">auto <b>pract</b></div>
    <div class = "my class 4"><b>programs</b> buzz</div>
</div>

Note: Here, I have tested several scenarios for different function(method) combination to understand the usage of normalize-space function. XPath which is working I have marked it with Pass otherwise fail.

Using Contains Function

Scenario 1: Text with space in beginning and end (PASS)

//div[contains(text(),'space in beginning and end')]

Scenario 2: Text with space in between (FAIL)

//div[contains(text(),'space in between')]

Scenario 3: Text with nested elements with inner text (FAIL)

/div[contains(text(),'auto pract')]
//div[contains(text(),'programs buzz')]

Scenario 4: Attribute with space in beginning and end (PASS)

//div[contains(@class,'my class 1')]

Scenario 5: Attribute with space in between (FAIL)

//div[contains(@class,'my class 2')]

Normalize-space with text() function

Scenario 1: Text with space in beginning and end (PASS)

//div[text()[normalize-space() = 'space in beginning and end']] 
//div[normalize-space(text()) = 'space in beginning and end']

Scenario 2: Text with space in between (PASS)

//div[text()[normalize-space() = 'space in between']] 
//div[normalize-space(text()) = 'space in between']

Scenario 3: Text with nested elements with inner text (PASS)

//div[text()[normalize-space() = 'auto']]
//div[text()[normalize-space() = 'buzz']]

Scenario 4: Text with nested elements with inner text (FAIL)

//div[text()[normalize-space() = 'auto pract']] 
//div[normalize-space(text()) = 'programs buzz']

Normalize-space with contains() function

Scenario 1: Text with space in beginning and end (PASS)

//div[contains(normalize-space(),'space in beginning and')] 

Scenario 2: Text with space in between (PASS)

//div[contains(normalize-space(),'space in')] 

Scenario 3: Text with nested elements with inner text (PASS)

//div[contains(normalize-space(),'auto pract')]  
//div[contains(normalize-space(),'programs buzz')] 

Normalize-space with attribute

Scenario 1: attribute with space in beginning and end (PASS)

//div[normalize-space(@class)='my class 1']

Scenario 2: attribute with space in between (PASS)

//div[normalize-space(@class)='my class 2']

Normalize-space with attribute and contains

//div[contains(normalize-space(@class),'my class')]