[Answers](https://scrapfly.io/blog) / [xpath](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/xpath) / [How to select element with one of many names in XPath?](https://scrapfly.io/blog/answers/how-to-select-elements-by-attribute-value-in-xpath) # How to select element with one of many names in XPath? by [Bernardas Alisauskas](https://scrapfly.io/blog/author/bernardas) Apr 18, 2026 2 min read [\#xpath](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/xpath) [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscrapfly.io%2Fblog%2Fanswers%2Fhow-to-select-elements-by-attribute-value-in-xpath "Share on LinkedIn") The XPath syntax allows interaction with web elements' attributes, such as `class`, `id`, `href`, and others, through the `@` XPath expression. This enables us to select any element in the web page DOM based on its attribute values with XPath selectors. To select elements based on their attribute values, we can follow either of two XPath expressions: - Select the desired element by its exact attribute value, such as `[@attribute='value']` - Select by partial attribute value using XPath contains, such as `[contains(@attribute, 'value')]` Let's go over practical examples of applying the above XPath queries to extract data on both HTML and XML documents. ### Using XPath @ expression The `@` XPath expression selects a web element using the exact element's attribute: <!-- select all links by selecting the @href attributes --> <html> <a href="/categories/1">category</a> <a href="/product/1">product 1</a> <a href="/product/2">product 2</a> <a href="/product/3">product 3</a> </html> Here, we use the XPath query to select all elements containing the `href` tag. ### Using XPath contains expression The `contains` XPath function enables selecting a particular web element based on its partial text match: <!-- select only product links by checking @href attribute --> <html> <a href="/categories/1">category</a> <a href="/product/1">product 1</a> <a href="/product/2">product 2</a> <a href="/product/3">product 3</a> </html> Above, we select all `href` attributes by using a partial text search. For further details on XPath selectors, refer to our dedicated guide. [Parsing HTML with XpathIntroduction to xpath in the context of web-scraping. How to extract data from HTML documents using xpath, best practices and available tools.](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/parsing-html-with-xpath) ## XML Note that the mentioned XPath functions can also be applied with the XML path language. Here's an example of parsing an XML document: <product> <variant> <price>99$</price> <rate type="product A">4.5</rate> </variant> <variant> <price>120$</price> <rate type="product B">3.5</rate> </variant> </product> We can also use the XPath `contains` expression to text by partial attribute text: <product> <variant> <price>99$</price> <rate type="product A">4.5</rate> </variant> <variant> <price>120$</price> <rate type="product B">3.5</rate> </variant> </product> For more on parsing XML with XPath and CSS selectors, refer to our dedicated guide. [How to Parse XMLIn this article, we'll explain about XML parsing. We'll start by defining XML files, their format and how to navigate them for data extraction.](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/how-to-parse-xml) Table of Contents Table of Contents- [Using XPath @ expression](#using-xpath-expression) - [Using XPath contains expression](#using-xpath-contains-expression) - [XML](#xml) Join the Newsletter Get monthly web scraping insights Scale Your Web Scraping Anti-bot bypass, browser rendering, and rotating proxies, all in one API. Start with 1,000 free credits. No credit card required 1,000 free API credits Anti-bot bypass included [Start Free](https://scrapfly.io/register) [View Docs](https://scrapfly.io/docs/onboarding) Not ready? 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