Getting Stale element exception when iterating over a dropdown in Selenium

Question

List<WebElement> dropdownlist = driver.findElements(By.xpath("//*
[contains(@class,'mat-option ng-star-inserted')]//span"));
int count = dropdownlist.size();
for (int j=0; j<=dropdownlist.size(); j++) 
{               
        dropdownlist.get(j).click();  
} 

My first dropdown list item gets selected and second one is not getting clicked.

Answer 1

A stale element exception occurs when selenium element is no longer valid. It can be caused when your DOM refreshed after you resolved your element.

• I suggest you observe what happens after you click on an option of your dropdown.

• Try the code below: (only work around check behavior after element click, for proper solution)

  int count = dropdownlist.size();                     
  
         for (int j=1; j<=dropdownlist.size(); j++)
           {              
              WebElement opt = driver.findElements(By.xpath("(//*[contains(@class,'mat-option ng-star-inserted')]//span)["+j+"]"));
              opt.click();  
           }