[Question] Is the locator.count() function supposed to wait for elements matching that locator before returning the count value?

Hi,

I’ve been trying to use the locator.count function in my typescript Playwright test and I’ve been fumbling around trying to figure out why I was getting a 0 value returned from the count function. As I was debugging, I searched with the exact locator that my test was using on the chromium dev tools and it was finding 5 elements.

The original code I was using was:

const numberOfDresses: number = await this.page.locator(DressesPage.dressesPrices).count();

which was returning 0.

And I had to change it to this in order for it to work:

await this.page.locator(DressesPage.dressesPrices).nth(1).waitFor();
const numberOfDresses: number = await this.page.locator(DressesPage.dressesPrices).count();

So it got me wondering… Is the locator.count() function supposed to wait for elements matching that locator before returning the count value? Or have I stumbled across a bug?

Thanks, Mathew

[mathewr94]

In the end, I just used what I was using:

await this.page.locator(DressesPage.dressesPrices).nth(1).waitFor();
const numberOfDresses: number = await this.page.locator(DressesPage.dressesPrices).count();

This question was really raised because I didn’t understand how .count() works and I thought I might’ve encountered a bug in the function. For anyone who might find this from a Google search, just know that the .count() function will get a count without waiting for any elements that match your provided locator, so you have to wait first.

[mxschmitt]

Feel free to file a feature request for it!