Implementation:SeleniumHQ Selenium ByIdOrName

Knowledge Sources	SeleniumHQ_Selenium Selenium Documentation
Domains	WebDriver, ElementLocation, Support
Last Updated	2026-02-12 00:00 GMT

Overview

The ByIdOrName class is a composite element locator that first attempts to find elements by their id attribute and falls back to searching by name attribute.

Description

ByIdOrName extends the Selenium By class and implements Serializable. It provides a dual-strategy element location mechanism: when finding a single element, it first tries to locate by id and, if a NoSuchElementException is thrown, falls back to locating by name. When finding multiple elements, it aggregates results from both id and name searches. This class is used internally by the How.ID_OR_NAME enum constant in the Page Factory pattern.

Usage

Use ByIdOrName when you have an identifier string that could match either an element's id or name attribute and you want a single locator to handle both cases. This is commonly used with the @FindBy(how = How.ID_OR_NAME) annotation in the Page Object pattern.

Code Reference

Source Location

• Repository: SeleniumHQ_Selenium
• File: java/src/org/openqa/selenium/support/ByIdOrName.java

Signature

public class ByIdOrName extends By implements Serializable {
    public ByIdOrName(String idOrName);
    public WebElement findElement(SearchContext context);
    public List<WebElement> findElements(SearchContext context);
    public String toString();
}

Import

import org.openqa.selenium.support.ByIdOrName;

I/O Contract

Constructor

Parameter	Type	Description
idOrName	String	The value to search for as both an element id and name attribute

Methods

Method	Parameters	Returns	Description
findElement	SearchContext context	WebElement	Finds a single element: tries By.id() first, falls back to By.name() if NoSuchElementException is thrown
findElements	SearchContext context	List<WebElement>	Finds all matching elements: aggregates results from both By.id() and By.name()
toString()	none	String	Returns by id or name "value"

Search Strategy

Operation	Step 1	Step 2	Behavior
findElement	Try By.id(idOrName)	On NoSuchElementException, try By.name(idOrName)	Returns first match; throws if neither finds a result
findElements	Collect all from By.id(idOrName)	Append all from By.name(idOrName)	Returns combined list; may contain duplicates if an element has matching id and name

Usage Examples

// Direct usage
WebElement element = driver.findElement(new ByIdOrName("username"));

// Find all elements matching by id or name
List<WebElement> elements = driver.findElements(new ByIdOrName("email"));

// Used with Page Factory annotation
public class LoginPage {
    @FindBy(how = How.ID_OR_NAME, using = "username")
    private WebElement usernameField;

    @FindBy(how = How.ID_OR_NAME, using = "password")
    private WebElement passwordField;
}

Related Pages

• SeleniumHQ_Selenium_How - Enum that includes ID_OR_NAME which delegates to this class
• SeleniumHQ_Selenium_Color - Another support utility class
• SeleniumHQ_Selenium_Colors - Another support utility class