Typing the Enter/Return key in Selenium

Question

I'm looking for a quick way to type the Enter or Return key in Selenium.

Unfortunately, the form I'm trying to test (not my own code, so I can't modify) doesn't have a Submit button. When working with it manually, I just type Enter or Return. How can I do that with the Selenium type command as there is no button to click?

Solution 1

import org.openqa.selenium.Keys

WebElement.sendKeys(Keys.RETURN);

---

The import statement is for Java. For other languages, it is maybe different. For example, in Python it is from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys

Solution 2

Java

driver.findElement(By.id("Value")).sendKeys(Keys.RETURN);

OR,

driver.findElement(By.id("Value")).sendKeys(Keys.ENTER);

---

Python

from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
driver.find_element_by_name("Value").send_keys(Keys.RETURN)

OR,

driver.find_element_by_name("Value").send_keys(Keys.ENTER)

OR,

element = driver.find_element_by_id("Value")
element.send_keys("keysToSend")
element.submit()

---

Ruby

element = @driver.find_element(:name, "value")
element.send_keys "keysToSend"
element.submit

OR,

element = @driver.find_element(:name, "value")
element.send_keys "keysToSend"
element.send_keys:return

OR,

@driver.action.send_keys(:enter).perform
@driver.action.send_keys(:return).perform

---

C#

driver.FindElement(By.Id("Value")).SendKeys(Keys.Return);

OR,

driver.FindElement(By.Id("Value")).SendKeys(Keys.Enter);

Solution 3

You can use either of Keys.ENTER or Keys.RETURN. Here are the details:

Usage:

• Java:

  • Using Keys.ENTER:

    import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
    driver.findElement(By.id("element_id")).sendKeys(Keys.ENTER);
    

  • Using Keys.RETURN:

    import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
    driver.findElement(By.id("element_id")).sendKeys(Keys.RETURN);
    

• Python:

  • Using Keys.ENTER:

    from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
    driver.find_element_by_id("element_id").send_keys(Keys.ENTER)
    

  • Using Keys.RETURN:

    from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
    driver.find_element_by_id("element_id").send_keys(Keys.RETURN)
    

Keys.ENTER and Keys.RETURN both are from org.openqa.selenium.Keys, which extends java.lang.Enum<Keys> and implements java.lang.CharSequence.

---

Enum Keys

Enum Keys is the representations of pressable keys that aren't text. These are stored in the Unicode PUA (Private Use Area) code points, 0xE000-0xF8FF.

Key Codes:

The special keys codes for them are as follows:

• RETURN = u'\ue006'
• ENTER = u'\ue007'

The implementation of all the Enum Keys are handled the same way.

Hence these is No Functional or Operational difference while working with either sendKeys(Keys.ENTER); or WebElement.sendKeys(Keys.RETURN); through Selenium.

---

Enter Key and Return Key

On computer keyboards, the Enter (or the Return on Mac OS X) in most cases causes a command line, window form, or dialog box to operate its default function. This is typically to finish an "entry" and begin the desired process and is usually an alternative to pressing an OK button.

The Return is often also referred as the Enter and they usually perform identical functions; however in some particular applications (mainly page layout) Return operates specifically like the Carriage Return key from which it originates. In contrast, the Enter is commonly labelled with its name in plain text on generic PC keyboards.

---

References

• Enter Key
• Carriage Return

Solution 4

Now that Selenium 2 has been released, it's a bit easier to send an Enter key, since you can do it with the send_keys method of the selenium.webdriver.remote.webelement.WebElement class (this example code is in Python, but the same method exists in Java):

>>> from selenium import webdriver
>>> wd = webdriver.Firefox()
>>> wd.get("http://localhost/example/page")
>>> textbox = wd.find_element_by_css_selector("input")
>>> textbox.send_keys("Hello World\n")

Solution 5

In Python

Step 1. from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys

Step 2. driver.find_element_by_name("").send_keys(Keys.ENTER)

Note: you have to write Keys.ENTER

View more solutions

Comments

[Jonathan Parker]

This might help asynchrony.blogspot.com/2008/11/…

[Ripon Al Wasim]

@croixhaug: What are you using? Selenium RC or WebDriver (Selenium 2)? What about language? Java? C#? or what?

[Alex Okrushko]

@RiponAlWasim, in 2009 (when the question was asked) there were no WebDriver. Also the answers for both have been here for a while...

[Ripon Al Wasim]

@AlexOkrushko: yes, you are right

[cigien]

This post is being discussed on meta.

[James Broadhead]

I believe that it's moved. from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys (stackoverflow.com/questions/5503489/…)

[Ralph]

@HJames Broadhead: I have checked it, the Keys class for the actual JAVA (2.17.0) is still org.openqa.selenium.Keys

[Ripon Al Wasim]

WebElement.sendKeys(Keys.RETURN); this code is perfect for WebDriver (not for Selenium RC). More details example for google search: driver.findElement(By.id("gbqfq")).clear(); driver.findElement(By.id("gbqfq")).sendKeys("Ripon Al Wasim"); driver.findElement(By.id("gbqfq")).sendKeys(Keys.RETURN);

[NoBrainer]

I know that return is different than enter, but how is Keys.ENTER different? (I would think that Keys.RETURN would simply make it more obvious that it is a bot doing the action?)

[joescii]

This is also true for a GWT input text field.

[omikron]

@NoBrainer: Quick look at imported file will answer your question: RETURN = '\ue006' ENTER = '\ue007'. But why? Some relic or OS differences.

[Ripon Al Wasim]

If the element has ID, it is better to use ID instead of xpath

[abarisone]

Could you please elaborate more your answer adding a little more description about the solution you provide?

[Ralph]

@NoBrainer: Enter and Return are different keys, have a look at the image of this wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enter_key

[Martin Kersten]

This answer work but accidently voted it down because I used the wrong number.

[Chandrashekhar Swami]

just out of curiosity , why do you prefer writing 3 lines of code which you can write in a single line

[RNS]

@Ralph Thanks for your solution. It's worthy for upvote.

[Guilherme]

for python: from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys password_field.send_keys(Keys.ENTER)

[YakovK]

For Python, I found that appending "\n" to the input string is the most straightforward way to go. It worked in a search field.

[Peter Mortensen]

Re "keys function": Do you mean send_keys() (this is about Python)?

[Peter Mortensen]

Can you link to the documentation?

[Peter Mortensen]

What list? Can you link to it?

[Peter Mortensen]

Can you link to documentation for the Robot class?

[Peter Mortensen]

Or more generally, values from Keys (import can be selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys), Keys.RETURN in this case.

[Peter Mortensen]

Isn't an "import" of sorts needed for Keys? In Python, it would be "from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys".

[Peter Mortensen]

Isn't an "import" of sorts needed for Keys? In Python, it would be "from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys".

[Peter Mortensen]

What language? Isn't an "import" of sorts needed for Keys? In Python, it would be "from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys".

[Peter Mortensen]

What 'language'/context? Bash (command line)? Linux? Can you add some context to your answer?

[Peter Mortensen]

Is "webElement" literal?

[Peter Mortensen]

What language? Python?

[Peter Mortensen]

What language? Java?

[Maurice Svay]

It's for HTML tests suites

[zaheer]

this answer works perfectly driver.find_element_by_xpath('//xpath').send_keys(Keys.ENTER‌​) in case for search works perfectly.