selenium webdriver - The difference between ".//*" and "//*" XPath?

Question

This question already has answers here: question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65843555/the-difference-between-and-xpath

Answer 1

While using Selenium you can find elements using WebDriver right?

Java example: WebElement element = driver.findElement(...)

But you can also use element variable to look for elements in the context of this element. It will not search the whole DOM, it will limit the search to element.

Java example:

WebElement nestedElement = element.findElement(...);

That's where .// becomes handy. Because it tells xpath to use current context.

This will search in reduced context:

element.findElement(By.xpath(".//div"));

This will search through DOM, regardless of using element

element.findElement(By.xpath("//div"));