How can I consistently remove the default text from an input element with Selenium?

We can consistently remove the default text from an input element with Selenium. The clear method is used to remove the values currently present in an edit box or a text area.

The Keys.chord method along with sendKeys can also be used. The Keys.chord method allows you to pass more than one key at once. The group of keys or strings are passed as arguments to the method.

First of all, pass Keys.CONTROL and a as arguments to the Keys.chord method. The whole string is then passed as an argument to the sendKeys method. Last, we have to pass Keys.DELETE to the sendKeys method.

Let's take the below edit field where we will remove the default text.

Example

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
public class RemDefaultVal{
   public static void main(String[] args) {
         System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver","C:\Users\ghs6kor\Desktop\Java\chromedriver.exe");
      WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
      driver.get("https://www.tutorialspoint.com/index.htm");
      // identify element
      WebElement m = driver.findElement(By.id("gsc−i−id1"));
      // delete default value with clear()
      m.clear();
      driver.quit();
   }
}

Example

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.Keys;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
public class RemDefaultValKeys{
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver","C:\Users\ghs6kor\Desktop\Java\chromedriver.exe");
      WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
      driver.get("https://www.tutorialspoint.com/index.htm");
      // identify element
      WebElement m = driver.findElement(By.id("gsc−i−id1"));
      // sending Ctrl+A by the Keys.Chord
      String st = Keys.chord(Keys.CONTROL, "a");
      l.sendKeys(st);
      // DELETE key sent
      l.sendKeys(Keys.DELETE);
      driver.quit();
   }
}