Getting unexpected result when using element.all(by.xpath()) to read table data

My application contains two mat-tables on it. I would like to read the table data from my second table

await this.secondTableElement.all(by.xpath(//tr[${rowIndex}]/td[${columnIndex}]));

but this statement actually provides me the data from the first table and not from the secondtableElement. I believe when you execute all() method under a parent element, protractor is supposed to search under this element and not from the very beginning of the HTML document.

[Fuun347]

Xpath is not recommended at all for any use by the protractor team. This is a section from the protractor style guide which you can locate here https://www.protractortest.org/#/style-guide. Generally I’ve had issues with xpath before so I absolutely never use it. I’m not sure if this here is a bug or just xpath’s broken behavior, but if you can go by without using it, then do go that route.

[Fuun347]

Then there is no reason why this should be selecting the wrong table. Have you tried using by.css rather than by.xpath?