What is the difference between .// and //* in XPath?

Question

While finding the relative XPath via Firebug : it creates like

1. .//*[@id=\'Passwd\']--------- what if we dont use dot at the start what it sign

Answer 1

The dot in XPath is called a "context item expression". If you put a dot at the beginning of the expression, it would make it context-specific. In other words, it would search the element with id="Passwd" in the context of the node on which you are calling the "find element by XPath" method.

The * in the .//*[@id='Passwd'] helps to match any element with id='Passwd'.