Working with select list elements

Select lists have special behaviors compared to other elements.

The Select object will now give you a series of commands that allow you to interact with a <select> element.

If you are using Java or .NET make sure that you’ve properly required the support package in your code. See the full code from GitHub in any of the examples below.

Note that this class only works for HTML elements select and option. It is possible to design drop-downs with JavaScript overlays using div or li, and this class will not work for those.

Types

Select methods may behave differently depending on which type of <select> element is being worked with.

Single select

This is the standard drop-down object where one and only one option may be selected.

<select name="selectomatic">
    <option selected="selected" id="non_multi_option" value="one">One</option>
    <option value="two">Two</option>
    <option value="four">Four</option>
    <option value="still learning how to count, apparently">Still learning how to count, apparently</option>
</select>

Multiple select

This select list allows selecting and deselecting more than one option at a time. This only applies to <select> elements with the multiple attribute.

<select name="multi" id="multi" multiple="multiple">
    <option selected="selected" value="eggs">Eggs</option>
    <option value="ham">Ham</option>
    <option selected="selected" value="sausages">Sausages</option>
    <option value="onion gravy">Onion gravy</option>
</select>

Create class

First locate a <select> element, then use it to initialize a Select object. Note that as of Selenium 4.5, you can’t create a Select object if the <select> element is disabled.

        WebElement selectElement = driver.findElement(By.name("selectomatic"));
        Select select = new Select(selectElement);

Show full example

package dev.selenium.support;

import dev.selenium.BaseChromeTest;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.Select;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class SelectListTest extends BaseChromeTest {

    @BeforeEach
    public void navigate() {
        driver.get("https://www.selenium.dev/selenium/web/formPage.html");
    }

    @Test
    public void selectOption() {
        WebElement selectElement = driver.findElement(By.name("selectomatic"));
        Select select = new Select(selectElement);

        WebElement twoElement = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("option[value=two]"));
        WebElement fourElement = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("option[value=four]"));
        WebElement countElement = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("option[value='still learning how to count, apparently']"));

        select.selectByVisibleText("Four");
        Assertions.assertTrue(fourElement.isSelected());

        select.selectByValue("two");
        Assertions.assertTrue(twoElement.isSelected());

        select.selectByIndex(3);
        Assertions.assertTrue(countElement.isSelected());
    }

    @Test
    public void selectMultipleOption() {
        WebElement selectElement = driver.findElement(By.name("multi"));
        Select select = new Select(selectElement);

        WebElement hamElement = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("option[value=ham]"));
        WebElement gravyElement = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("option[value='onion gravy']"));
        WebElement eggElement = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("option[value=eggs]"));
        WebElement sausageElement = driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("option[value='sausages']"));

        List<WebElement> optionElements = selectElement.findElements(By.tagName("option"));
        List<WebElement> optionList = select.getOptions();
        Assertions.assertEquals(optionElements, optionList);

        List<WebElement> selectedOptionList = select.getAllSelectedOptions();
        List<WebElement> expectedSelection = new ArrayList<WebElement>() {{
            add(eggElement);
            add(sausageElement);
        }};
        Assertions.assertEquals(expectedSelection, selectedOptionList);

        select.selectByValue("ham");
        select.selectByValue("onion gravy");
        Assertions.assertTrue(hamElement.isSelected());
        Assertions.assertTrue(gravyElement.isSelected());

        select.deselectByValue("eggs");
        select.deselectByValue("sausages");
        Assertions.assertFalse(eggElement.isSelected());
        Assertions.assertFalse(sausageElement.isSelected());
    }

    @Test
    public void disabledOption() {
        WebElement selectElement = driver.findElement(By.name("single_disabled"));
        Select select = new Select(selectElement);

        Assertions.assertThrows(UnsupportedOperationException.class, () -> {
            select.selectByValue("disabled");
        });
    }
}

Working with select list elements

Types

Single select

Multiple select

Create class

List options

All options

Selected options

Select option

Text

Value

Index

Disabled options

De-select option

Development Partners

Selenium Level Sponsors

Support the Selenium Project