How to Automate Tables in Selenium and Playwright

A list of your recent invoices.
Sr No.	Book Name	Book Genre	Book Author	Book ISBN	Book Published
1	Alice replied very.	Error	Lakshmi Kalla	9796596822485	1995-04-29
2	I look like it?'.	Non	Elias Sodhani	9797115399419	1995-06-17
3	SOMEBODY ought to.	Porro	Esha Dad	9784284532815	2004-08-22
4	Cat. 'I said pig,'.	Placeat	Kasturi Loke	9781399787840	1973-06-12
5	Alice laughed so.	Maiores	Seema Chaudhry	9781068944642	1977-07-25
6	Alice considered a.	Voluptas	Anusha Doshi	9798194532087	2010-10-06
7	I'm doubtful about.	Voluptatem	Rashid Mannan	9789044738223	2016-05-07
8	Normans--" How are.	Voluptatibus	Ramesh Mutti	9783422517646	1988-02-18
9	Gryphon. 'Turn a.	Possimus	Aarti Bhandari	9795943377449	1982-02-21
10	She was a little.	Dignissimos	Savita Bhatia	9780389014102	2023-05-08

Introduction

HTML tables are everywhere — dashboards, reports, transaction lists. Automating them requires:

Count rows and columns — verify table size
Read a specific cell — by row and column index
Find a row by content — search for specific data
Verify table headers — assert column names
Verify all rows — loop through and check values

Key Methods Summary

Action	Selenium (Java)	Playwright (JS)	Playwright (Python)
Count rows	`findElements(By.cssSelector("tbody tr")).size()`	`locator("tbody tr").count()`	`locator("tbody tr").count()`
Count cols	`findElements(By.cssSelector("thead th")).size()`	`locator("thead th").count()`	`locator("thead th").count()`
Get cell text	`findElement(By.cssSelector("tr:nth-child(2) td:nth-child(1)")).getText()`	`locator("tr:nth-child(2) td:nth-child(1)").textContent()`	`text_content()`
Get headers	`findElements(By.tagName("th"))`	`locator("th").allTextContents()`	`all_text_contents()`

1. Count rows and columns

Selenium (Java)

List<WebElement> rows = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("#dataTable tbody tr"));
System.out.println("Row count: " + rows.size());
 
List<WebElement> cols = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("#dataTable thead th"));
System.out.println("Column count: " + cols.size());

Playwright (JS)

const rowCount = await page.locator("#dataTable tbody tr").count();
const colCount = await page.locator("#dataTable thead th").count();
console.log("Rows:", rowCount, "Cols:", colCount);

Playwright (Python)

row_count = page.locator("#dataTable tbody tr").count()
col_count = page.locator("#dataTable thead th").count()
print(f"Rows: {row_count}, Cols: {col_count}")

2. Read a specific cell by row and column

Selenium (Java)

// Row 1, Column 1 (1-based in CSS)
String cellText = driver.findElement(
    By.cssSelector("#dataTable tbody tr:nth-child(1) td:nth-child(1)")
).getText();
System.out.println("Cell value: " + cellText);

Playwright (JS)

const cellText = await page
  .locator("#dataTable tbody tr:nth-child(1) td:nth-child(1)")
  .textContent();
console.log("Cell value:", cellText);

Playwright (Python)

cell_text = page.locator(
    "#dataTable tbody tr:nth-child(1) td:nth-child(1)"
).text_content()
print("Cell value:", cell_text)

3. Read all header names

Selenium (Java)

List<WebElement> headers = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("#dataTable thead th"));
for (WebElement header : headers) {
    System.out.println(header.getText());
}

Playwright (JS)

const headers = await page.locator("#dataTable thead th").allTextContents();
console.log(headers); // ["Name", "Age", "City", "Action"]

Playwright (Python)

headers = page.locator("#dataTable thead th").all_text_contents()
print(headers)

4. Find a row containing specific text

Selenium (Java)

List<WebElement> rows = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("#dataTable tbody tr"));
for (WebElement row : rows) {
    if (row.getText().contains("Alice")) {
        System.out.println("Found row: " + row.getText());
        // click edit button in this row
        row.findElement(By.cssSelector("button[data-action='edit']")).click();
        break;
    }
}

Playwright (JS)

const row = page.locator("#dataTable tbody tr").filter({ hasText: "Alice" });
await expect(row).toBeVisible();
await row.locator("button[data-action='edit']").click();

Playwright (Python)

row = page.locator("#dataTable tbody tr").filter(has_text="Alice")
expect(row).to_be_visible()
row.locator("button[data-action='edit']").click()

5. Read all rows and build a list

Selenium (Java)

List<WebElement> rows = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("#dataTable tbody tr"));
List<String> names = new ArrayList<>();
for (WebElement row : rows) {
    String name = row.findElement(By.cssSelector("td:nth-child(1)")).getText();
    names.add(name);
}
System.out.println(names);

Playwright (JS)

const rows = page.locator("#dataTable tbody tr");
const count = await rows.count();
const names = [];
for (let i = 0; i < count; i++) {
  const name = await rows.nth(i).locator("td:nth-child(1)").textContent();
  names.push(name.trim());
}
console.log(names);

Playwright (Python)

rows = page.locator("#dataTable tbody tr")
count = rows.count()
names = []
for i in range(count):
    name = rows.nth(i).locator("td:nth-child(1)").text_content()
    names.append(name.strip())
print(names)

6. Verify table has no data (empty state)

Selenium (Java)

List<WebElement> rows = driver.findElements(By.cssSelector("#dataTable tbody tr"));
assertTrue(rows.isEmpty() || rows.get(0).getText().contains("No data"));

Playwright (JS)

const rowCount = await page.locator("#dataTable tbody tr").count();
expect(rowCount).toBe(0);
// or check empty message
await expect(page.locator("#emptyTableMsg")).toBeVisible();

Playwright (Python)

row_count = page.locator("#dataTable tbody tr").count()
assert row_count == 0
# or
expect(page.locator("#emptyTableMsg")).to_be_visible()

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