BeautifulSoup has many functions to search elements - not only find() and find_all() but also

• find_next(),
• find_all_next(),
• find_next_sibling(),
• find_next_siblings(),

It can also search in other direction using

• find_previous(),
• find_all_previous(),
• find_previous_sibling(),
• find_previous_siblings(),

It has also attributes (for single element)

• .next_element
• .previous_element,

and iterators (for many elements)

• .next_elements,
• .previous_elements

which can work different then functions.

In example code I can use find() to get div with current and later use find_next() to search next element(s) or find_previous() to search previous element(s).

Using options like class, id, etc. it doesn't have to give directly next/previous element but first element which matches options.

To get exactly next/previous you can use True in place of tag find_next(True), find_previous(True), etc. or even use without tag find_next(), find_previous(), etc.

text = '''
<div class="y">Y</div>
<div class="a">-2</div>
<div class="a">-1</div>
<div class="current">0</div>
<div class="a">1</div>
<div class="a">2</div>
<div class="x">X</div>
'''

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup as BS

soup = BS(text, 'html.parser')

current = soup.find('div', {'class': 'current'})

# --------------------------------------------

print('\n--- next ---\n')

next_a = current.find_next('div')
print('next_a:', next_a.string)

next_a = next_a.find_next('div')
print('next_a:', next_a.string)

next_x = current.find_next('div', {'class', 'x'})
print('next_x:', next_x.string)

all_next_a = current.find_all_next('div', {'class', 'a'})
print('all_next_a:', [x.string for x in all_next_a])

# --------------------------------------------

print('\n--- prev ---\n')

prev_a = current.find_previous('div')
print('prev_a:', prev_a.string)

prev_a = prev_a.find_previous('div')
print('prev_a:', prev_a.string)

prev_y = current.find_previous('div', {'class', 'y'})
print('prev_y:', prev_y.string)

all_prev_a = current.find_all_previous('div', {'class', 'a'})
print('all_prev_a:', [x.string for x in all_prev_a])

current = soup.find('div', {'class': 'current'})

# --------------------------------------------

print('\n--- directly next\prev ---\n')

#next_direct = current.find_next(True)
next_direct = current.find_next()
print('next:', next_direct.string)
next_direct = next_direct.find_next()
print('next:', next_direct.string)
next_direct = next_direct.find_next()
print('next:', next_direct.string)

#prev_direct = current.find_previous(True)
prev_direct = current.find_previous()
print('prev:', prev_direct.string)
prev_direct = prev_direct.find_previous()
print('prev:', prev_direct.string)
prev_direct = prev_direct.find_previous()
print('prev:', prev_direct.string)

Result:

--- next ---

next_a: 1
next_a: 2
next_x: X
all_next_a: ['1', '2']

--- prev ---

prev_a: -1
prev_a: -2
prev_y: Y
all_prev_a: ['-1', '-2']

--- directly next\prev ---

next: 1
next: 2
next: X
prev: -1
prev: -2
prev: Y

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