Skip to main content

CSS vs. XPath, Conclusion

NOTE: This is part 3 of 3. For the first installment, go here. For the second installment, go here.

Intro​

In the last tip I provided benchmarks that showed XPath and CSS performance across various browsers. Since then I've received feedback on some things that my test was missing -- most notably more browser coverage (e.g., Internet Explorer 9 and 10) and testing against a larger and deeper page.

A Solution​

In order to make sure these benchmarks are as thorough as possible I've put together an example that demonstrates a large and deep page, and retooled my test script accordingly. Otherwise, everything is pretty much the same as last time (e.g., dual runs to weed out anomalies, 100 test executions for time in seconds, etc.).

Let's dig into the results.

Special Thanks​

David Burns
Feedback and insight into the test and example design
Brian Goad
Feedback and insight into the test and example design
Dima Kovalenko
Feedback and insight into the test and example design
Simon Stewart
Feedback and insight into the test and example design

Authors​

Dave Piacente
Original creator of Elemental Selenium
Diego Molina
Elemental Selenium maintainer