selenium Filling in text in a series TDs kin the first TR of a specific table

I have a first row in a table that has empty TDs filled with input TEXTBOXs or TEXTAREAs here is what the row looks like

 <tr>
     <td class="gwf_variable_table_control_column">
        <div class="gwf_tooltip"><input type="button" class="gwf-round-button" value="^" onclick="InsertRowBefore('MeteorologicalVariables', this, 'TextBox')" title="Add row before"></div>
        <div class="gwf_tooltip"><input type="button" class="gwf-round-button" value="X" onclick="DeleteRow('MeteorologicalVariables', this)" title="Delete current row"></div>
        <div class="gwf_tooltip"><input type="button" class="gwf-round-button" value="v" onclick="InsertRowAfter('MeteorologicalVariables', this, 'TextBox')" title="Add row after"></div>
     </td>
     <td><input type="text" class="fmc-tb-appearance fmc-tb-font fmc-tb-height" style="width:100%"></td>
     <td><textarea class="fmc-tb-appearance fmc-tb-font" style="height:60px;min-width:200px;width:200px;max-width:200px;"></textarea></td>
     <td><textarea class="fmc-tb-appearance fmc-tb-font" style="height:60px;min-width:200px;width:200px;max-width:200px;"></textarea></td>
     <td><input type="text" class="fmc-tb-appearance fmc-tb-font fmc-tb-height" style="width:100%"></td>
     <td><input type="text" class="fmc-tb-appearance fmc-tb-font fmc-tb-height" style="width:100%"></td>
     <td><input type="text" class="fmc-tb-appearance fmc-tb-font fmc-tb-height" style="width:100%"></td>
     <td><textarea class="fmc-tb-appearance fmc-tb-font" style="height:60px;min-width:275px;width:275px;max-width:275px;"></textarea></td>
  </tr>

and here is the table itself I need to index to this table then hop into each text box or text area and fill them in:

 <table id="MeteorologicalVariables" class="gwf_variable_table">
   <colgroup>
      <col>
      <col style="min-width:150px">
      <col style="min-width:200px">
      <col style="min-width:200px">
      <col style="min-width:200px">
      <col style="min-width:220px">
      <col style="min-width:220px">
      <col style="min-width:275px">
   </colgroup>
   <tbody>
      <tr style="display: table-row;">
         <td class="gwf_variable_table_control_column"></td>
         <td style="max-width:150px" class="fmc-table-label-font fmc-tb-height">Variable</td>
         <td style="max-width:200px" class="fmc-table-label-font fmc-tb-height">Station Name</td>
         <td style="max-width:200px" class="fmc-table-label-font fmc-tb-height">Sensor(s)</td>
         <td style="max-width:200px" class="fmc-table-label-font fmc-tb-height">Height / Depth (m)</td>
         <td style="max-width:220px" class="fmc-table-label-font fmc-tb-height">Record Period</td>
         <td style="max-width:220px" class="fmc-table-label-font fmc-tb-height">Measurement Frequency</td>
         <td style="max-width:275px" class="fmc-table-label-font fmc-tb-height">Notes / Details</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
         <td class="gwf_variable_table_control_column">
            <div class="gwf_tooltip"><input type="button" class="gwf-round-button" value="^" onclick="InsertRowBefore('MeteorologicalVariables', this, 'TextBox')" title="Add row before"></div>
            <div class="gwf_tooltip"><input type="button" class="gwf-round-button" value="X" onclick="DeleteRow('MeteorologicalVariables', this)" title="Delete current row"></div>
            <div class="gwf_tooltip"><input type="button" class="gwf-round-button" value="v" onclick="InsertRowAfter('MeteorologicalVariables', this, 'TextBox')" title="Add row after"></div>
         </td>
         <td><input type="text" class="fmc-tb-appearance fmc-tb-font fmc-tb-height" style="width:100%"></td>
         <td><textarea class="fmc-tb-appearance fmc-tb-font" style="height:60px;min-width:200px;width:200px;max-width:200px;"></textarea></td>
         <td><textarea class="fmc-tb-appearance fmc-tb-font" style="height:60px;min-width:200px;width:200px;max-width:200px;"></textarea></td>
         <td><input type="text" class="fmc-tb-appearance fmc-tb-font fmc-tb-height" style="width:100%"></td>
         <td><input type="text" class="fmc-tb-appearance fmc-tb-font fmc-tb-height" style="width:100%"></td>
         <td><input type="text" class="fmc-tb-appearance fmc-tb-font fmc-tb-height" style="width:100%"></td>
         <td><textarea class="fmc-tb-appearance fmc-tb-font" style="height:60px;min-width:275px;width:275px;max-width:275px;"></textarea></td>
      </tr>

here is what I have tried so far:

text1 = driver.find_element("xpath", '(//table[@id = "MeteorologicalVariables"]//input[@value = "^"])[1]/preceding-sibling::td[1]')
text1.send_keys("text1")

here is the error I get:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "d:\code\EnterDataObs\observations.py", line 77, in <module>
    text1 = driver.find_element("xpath", '(//table[@id = "MeteorologicalVariables"]//input[@value = "^"])[1]/preceding-sibling::td[1]')
  File "C:\Users\RobMe\AppData\Local\Packages\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.10_qbz5n2kfra8p0\LocalCache\local-packages\Python310\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 741, in find_element
    return self.execute(Command.FIND_ELEMENT, {"using": by, "value": value})["value"]
  File "C:\Users\RobMe\AppData\Local\Packages\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.10_qbz5n2kfra8p0\LocalCache\local-packages\Python310\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 347, in execute
    self.error_handler.check_response(response)
  File "C:\Users\RobMe\AppData\Local\Packages\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.10_qbz5n2kfra8p0\LocalCache\local-packages\Python310\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\errorhandler.py", line 229, in check_response     
    raise exception_class(message, screen, stacktrace)
selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchElementException: Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"(//table[@id = "MeteorologicalVariables"]//input[@value = "^"])[1]/preceding-sibling::td[1]"}

>Solution :

Here’s a mapping of the different fields and their XPath locator

Basically we use the index of the TD to pick the column and then specify whether it’s an INPUT or TEXTAREA.