How to Find Element by Link Text in Selenium

In Selenium, you can find an element by its visible link text using driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, "link text"). This method locates the first anchor tag (<a>) with the exact text you provide.

Syntax

The syntax to find an element by link text in Selenium is:

• driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, "link text"): Finds the first element with the exact visible link text.
• By.LINK_TEXT: Locator strategy to find links by their text.
• "link text": The exact text shown on the link.

python

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

# Find element by exact link text
element = driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, "Example Link")

Example

This example opens a webpage and finds a link by its exact visible text, then prints the link's URL.

python

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.service import Service
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
import time

# Setup Chrome driver options
options = Options()
options.add_argument('--headless')  # Run browser in headless mode

# Path to chromedriver executable (adjust path as needed)
service = Service('/path/to/chromedriver')

# Create WebDriver instance
with webdriver.Chrome(service=service, options=options) as driver:
    driver.get('https://example.com')
    
    # Find link by exact text
    link = driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, 'More information...')
    
    # Print the href attribute of the link
    print(link.get_attribute('href'))
    
    time.sleep(1)  # Pause to see output if needed

Output

https://www.iana.org/domains/example

Common Pitfalls

Common mistakes when using find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, ...) include:

• Using partial or incorrect link text. The text must match exactly.
• Trying to find elements that are not anchor tags (<a>).
• Not waiting for the page or element to load before searching.
• Confusing LINK_TEXT with PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT, which allows partial matches.

Example of wrong and right usage:

python

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

# Wrong: partial text with LINK_TEXT (raises NoSuchElementException)
# driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, 'More info')

# Right: use PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT for partial matches
# driver.find_element(By.PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT, 'More info')

Quick Reference

Summary of link text locators in Selenium:

Locator	Description	Match Type
By.LINK_TEXT	Finds link by exact visible text	Exact match
By.PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT	Finds link containing given text	Partial match

Key Takeaways

Use driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, "text") to find links by exact visible text.

Link text must match exactly; use PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT for partial matches.

Only anchor tags () can be found by link text locators.

Wait for the page to load before searching for elements.

Incorrect text or locator causes NoSuchElementException.