Object to string doesn't return expect result

Question

I'm using selenium on Python and I am converting the result of

name = browser.find_element_by_css_selector('elementname')

to string. It is returning 'WebElement' and what I am doing to convert it is

fname = type(name).__name__

I need it to return the actual element, in which case, it'd be a username of whoever's profile 'browser' is. I just don't know why I am returned 'WebElement'.

Thanks!

(I'm sure I don't need to provide the URL and element name, right?)

Answer 1

find_element_by_css_selector() method returns a WebElement instance. Instead, you need the value of the .text property:

name = browser.find_element_by_css_selector('elementname')
print(name.text)