The Extract Path step action extracts the absolute path of the element found by the finder on the step. Path in this respect is to be thought of in a very general sense. In HTML and XML, it is a tag path, such as html.body.div.text. In Excel it is a range, such as Sheet1!A5:B7. In JSON, it is the path used in JSON finders, such as @top:.a[5].b. The path extracted is always an absolute path, that is, not relative to a named tag, range, and so on, and without any wildcard (*) symbols. It is the kind of paths you see in the target views at the bottom of the Page Views, such as the Tag Path View in HTML/XML or the Cell Range View in Excel.

The extracted path may be used in the Finders of other steps in the Path property by referring to the variable containing the path.