Confusion about translate() function while using it for xpath case insensitivity

Question

I am automating a page using selenium with java and trying to use a case insensitive xpath with the help of translate function as follows.

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[contains(translate(.,'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ','abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'),'tools')]")).click();

'tools' text exists on the page as 'Tools'. [T as caps]

Now my question is,

• What does '.,' means in the above code?
• Using 'tools' in place of '.,' gives all the //a links. Reason?
• Whenever I use 'Tools' instead of 'tools' in the above code, it does not work.

Someone help me here.

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Answer 1

Now my question is,

• What does '.,' means in the above code?
• Using 'tools' in place of '.,' gives all the //a links. Reason?
• Whenever I use 'Tools' instead of 'tools' in the above code, it does not work.

The dot step is an abbreviated syntax, from the specs:

. selects the context node

Because it's used as parameter for a function that expects a string, will be casted by the means of string() function.

The string 'tools' always contains the string 'tools', thus you are not filtering any selected a element when you used instead of .

In the other hand, any lowercase string will never contain the string 'Tools', so you won't be able to select anything.