How to Find Element by Tag Name in Selenium

In Selenium, you can find an element by its tag name using the find_element(By.TAG_NAME, "tagname") method. This method locates the first element matching the given tag name on the web page.

Syntax

The syntax to find an element by tag name in Selenium is:

• driver.find_element(By.TAG_NAME, "tagname") - Finds the first element with the specified tag name.
• driver.find_elements(By.TAG_NAME, "tagname") - Finds all elements with the specified tag name and returns a list.

Here, driver is your WebDriver instance, By.TAG_NAME is the locator strategy, and "tagname" is the HTML tag you want to find, like "input" or "button".

python

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

# Initialize WebDriver (example with Chrome)
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get("https://example.com")

# Find first element by tag name
first_input = driver.find_element(By.TAG_NAME, "input")

# Find all elements by tag name
all_buttons = driver.find_elements(By.TAG_NAME, "button")

Example

This example opens a webpage, finds the first h1 tag, and prints its text content. It also finds all p tags and prints how many paragraphs are found.

python

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

# Setup WebDriver
with webdriver.Chrome() as driver:
    driver.get("https://www.example.com")

    # Find first h1 element
    heading = driver.find_element(By.TAG_NAME, "h1")
    print("Heading text:", heading.text)

    # Find all paragraph elements
    paragraphs = driver.find_elements(By.TAG_NAME, "p")
    print("Number of paragraphs found:", len(paragraphs))

Output

Heading text: Example Domain
Number of paragraphs found: 2

Common Pitfalls

• Using deprecated syntax: Older Selenium versions used find_element_by_tag_name, which is now deprecated. Always use find_element(By.TAG_NAME, "tagname").
• Expecting multiple elements but using find_element: find_element returns only the first match. Use find_elements to get all matching elements.
• Tag name case sensitivity: Tag names are case-insensitive in HTML, but always use lowercase strings for consistency.
• Element not found errors: If no element matches the tag name, Selenium throws NoSuchElementException. Handle exceptions or check element presence before accessing.

python

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

try:
    element = driver.find_element(By.TAG_NAME, "nonexistenttag")
except NoSuchElementException:
    print("Element with given tag name not found.")

Output

Element with given tag name not found.

Quick Reference

Method	Description	Returns
find_element(By.TAG_NAME, "tagname")	Finds first element with given tag name	WebElement
find_elements(By.TAG_NAME, "tagname")	Finds all elements with given tag name	List of WebElements
Deprecated: find_element_by_tag_name("tagname")	Older syntax, avoid using	WebElement

Key Takeaways

Use find_element(By.TAG_NAME, "tagname") to get the first matching element by tag name.

Use find_elements(By.TAG_NAME, "tagname") to get all matching elements as a list.

Avoid deprecated methods like find_element_by_tag_name; use the By locator strategy instead.

Handle NoSuchElementException when elements are not found to avoid test failures.

Tag names are case-insensitive but use lowercase strings for consistency.