SeleniumHQ/selenium · error · NoSuchElementException

Cannot locate option with value: {value}

Error message

Cannot locate option with value: {value}

What it means

`select_by_value()` builds a CSS selector `option[value=...]` and tries to select matching options. If none match it raises `NoSuchElementException` so the caller knows the requested value does not exist in the select.

Source

Thrown at py/selenium/webdriver/support/select.py:85

                `<option value="foo">Bar</option>`

        Args:
            value: The value to match against

        Raises:
            NoSuchElementException: If there is no option with specified value in SELECT
        """
        css = f"option[value ={self._escape_string(value)}]"
        opts = self._el.find_elements(By.CSS_SELECTOR, css)
        matched = False
        for opt in opts:
            self._set_selected(opt)
            if not self.is_multiple:
                return
            matched = True
        if not matched:
            raise NoSuchElementException(f"Cannot locate option with value: {value}")

    def select_by_index(self, index: int) -> None:
        """Select the option at the given index by examining the "index" attribute.

        Args:
            index: The option at this index will be selected

        Raises:
            NoSuchElementException: If there is no option with specified index in SELECT
        """
        match = str(index)
        for opt in self.options:
            if opt.get_attribute("index") == match:
                self._set_selected(opt)
                return
        raise NoSuchElementException(f"Could not locate element with index {index}")

    def select_by_visible_text(self, text: str) -> None:

View on GitHub (pinned to aa36b38e69)

Solutions

1. Inspect the select's option values first: `[o.get_attribute('value') for o in select.options]`
2. Verify the value string matches exactly (case, whitespace)
3. Add an explicit wait for the option to be present before selecting
4. Catch NoSuchElementException and fall back to selecting by visible text or index

Example fix

// before
select.select_by_value("USA")

// after
values = [o.get_attribute("value") for o in select.options]
if "us" in values:
    select.select_by_value("us")

values = [o.get_attribute("value") for o in select.options]
if value in values:
    select.select_by_value(value)

def value_exists(select_obj, value) -> bool:
    return value in [o.get_attribute("value") for o in select_obj.options]

from selenium.common.exceptions import NoSuchElementException

try:
    select.select_by_value(value)
except NoSuchElementException:
    # value not present — handle/log
    pass

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `select.select_by_value('foo')` when no `<option value="foo">` exists. Common when the value comes from test data that is stale, misspelled, or belongs to a different locale/environment.

Common situations: Value sourced from a config/env that differs across environments; trailing whitespace or case mismatch between data and the DOM attribute; the option is added dynamically and not yet present; hidden options that are present but the value string is wrong.

Related errors

• Could not locate element with index {index}
• Could not locate element with visible text: {text}
• Could not locate element with value: {value}
• Select only works on <select> elements, not on {webelement.t
• No options are selected

AI-assisted analysis of SeleniumHQ/selenium@aa36b38e69 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/61a0cca60366ea9a. Report an issue: GitHub.