Cypress Locators: get() vs find()

When writing tests with Cypress, locating elements on a web page is key.
Two of the most used commands are:

• cy.get()

• .find()

Although they may seem similar, they have different purposes and scopes.

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🔹 1. cy.get() — Global Selector

📌 What it does:

• Searches for elements in the entire DOM (the whole page).

• Starts from the root of the document.

✅ Syntax:

cy.get('selector')

📋 Example:

cy.get('.card')

👉 This will find all elements with the class .card in the whole page.

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🔹 2. .find() — Scoped Selector

📌 What it does:

• Searches for elements inside another element.

• Starts from the previously selected element (like a child selector).

✅ Syntax:

cy.get('parentSelector').find('childSelector')

📋 Example:

cy.get('.card').find('.title')

👉 This will find .title elements inside .card, not the whole page.

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🔍 Key Differences

Feature	cy.get()	.find()
Scope	Whole document (global)	Inside previously found element (local)
Starts From	Document root	A parent element
Use Case	First element selection	Nested/child element selection
Chainable?	No (starts a new chain)	Yes (used after get() or similar)

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🧠 Real Example:

HTML:

<div class="card">
  <h2 class="title">Title 1</h2>
</div>
<div class="card">
  <h2 class="title">Title 2</h2>
</div>

✅ Using get():

cy.get('.title') 
// Finds both "Title 1" and "Title 2"

✅ Using find():

cy.get('.card').first().find('.title') 
// Finds only "Title 1" inside the first .card

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✅ When to Use What

Situation	Use
Finding any element globally	cy.get()
Finding elements inside a container	.find()
Selecting nested child elements	.find()
Starting a new element search	cy.get()

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🛠 Bonus Tip:

Both can be used with CSS selectors, attributes, IDs, classes, etc.

cy.get('[data-cy="login-button"]')
cy.get('#main').find('input[type="email"]')

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✅ Summary:

• Use **cy.get()** to locate elements from the entire page.

• Use **.find()** to search within an element found previously.

 

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