Error -Element should have been select but was div

Question

I get the error message when I try to select an item from a menu in a webpage. In the code below, I used the Id of the element. When I tried using the XPath instead of the Id, I got a similar error messsage.

Here is the error in full:

An unhandled exception of type 'OpenQA.Selenium.Support.UI.UnexpectedTagNameException' occurred in WebDriver.Support.dll

Additional information: Element should have been select but was div

And, here is the code:

        //Select "Perday" for Salary Type   
        var salType = driver.FindElement(By.Id("adv-search-mobile"));
        var selectSalType = new SelectElement(salType);

        selectSalType.SelectByText("Per day");

    }
}

HTML:

<select class="adv-search-select sal-type-select" name="salarytype" tabindex="6"> 
    <option value="annum">Per annum</option> 
    <option value="month">Per month</option> 
    <option value="week">Per week</option> 
    <option value="day">Per day</option> 
    <option value="hour">Per hour</option> 
 </select> 

Answer 1

The error message is just what it says. The element on your page with ID adv-search-mobile has a <div> tag.

You need to update your locator to get the <select> element (within that <div>. A SelectElement object can only be created from a <select>.

If you need more help, you can post your HTML.

EDIT: If the name of your dropdown is unique, you might try:

var salType = driver.FindElement(By.Name("salarytype"));

Answer 2

<a class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown" href="javascript:void(0)">

        Live Actions<b class="caret"></b></a>