TypeError: 'WebElement' object is not subscriptable

Question

I try to press the Replay button at Spotify Web Player with Python, but get this error. How can I press buttons in a webplayer?

replay = driver.find_element_by_xpath("""/html/body/div[2]/div/div[4]/div[3]/footer/div/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[5]/button""")[0]
replay.click()

Error:

replay = driver.find_element_by_xpath("""/html/body/div[2]/div/div[4]/div[3]/footer/div/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[5]/button""")[0]
TypeError: 'WebElement' object is not subscriptable

Solution 1

This error message...

TypeError 'WebElement' object is not subscriptable

...implies that you have attached an index to a WebElement which is not supported.

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Analysis

Only list elements can be indexed. However, in this line of code:

replay = driver.find_element_by_xpath("""/html/body/div[2]/div/div[4]/div[3]/footer/div/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[5]/button""")[0]
        

driver.find_element_by_xpath("""/html/body/div[2]/div/div[4]/div[3]/footer/div/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[5]/button""") would always return a single WebElement. Hence you can't access the element through any index, e.g. [0], [1], etc as an index can be associated only with a list.

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Solution

There are two approaches to solve the issue.

• In the first approach, you can remove the index, i.e. [0], and in that case replay will be assigned with the first matched element identified through locator strategy as follows:

  replay = driver.find_element_by_xpath("""/html/body/div[2]/div/div[4]/div[3]/footer/div/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[5]/button""")
  

• In the other approach, instead of using find_element_by_xpath() you can create a list using find_elements_by_xpath() and access the very first element from the List using the index [0] as follows:

  replay = driver.find_elements_by_xpath("""/html/body/div[2]/div/div[4]/div[3]/footer/div/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[5]/button""")[0]
  

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Reference

You can find a couple of relevant discussions in:

• Exception has occurred: TypeError 'WebElement' object is not subscriptable

Solution 2

find_element_by_xpath

returns first found element (not array)

find_element_by_xpath(...).click()

or

find_elements_by_xpath(...)[0].click()

Comments

[John Gordon]

find_element_by_xpath() returns a single item, not a list. Why are you using [0] on it?

[KunduK]

Remove [0] since you are using find_element_by_xpath()

[Hi3t]

Lol thank you, it worked.

[T-student]

it means that the ("""/html/body/div[2]/div/div[4]/div[3]/footer/div/div[2]/di‌​v/div[1]/div[5]/butt‌​on""") don't return a list ... probably you are pointing to the wrong element

[Tea Tree]

Please elaborate a bit more. What is the difference between the different commands?

[cach dies]

one is plural return multiple elements the other is singular, return only one.