Use contains operator for text field search filters by wildan-m · Pull Request #86598 · Expensify/App

wildan-m · 2026-03-28T04:25:50Z

Explanation of Change

When searching merchant:coffee, the search parser maps : to the eq (exact match) operator for all fields uniformly. Text fields like merchant and description need the contains (substring) operator so that merchant:coffee matches "Coffee shop", "My coffee", etc.

The search() function in Search.ts passed the AST filters unchanged to the backend, so the contains operator that already existed in CONST.SEARCH.SYNTAX_OPERATORS was never used.

Fix: added applyContainsOperatorToTextFields() in SearchQueryUtils.ts that recursively traverses the AST and replaces eq with contains for free-text filter fields (merchant, description). It is called in search() before the query is sent to the backend. The transformation happens at the query construction layer — no parser grammar changes needed, existing parser tests are unaffected, and adding future text fields is a one-line Set addition.

Fixed Issues

$ #86235
PROPOSAL: #86235 (comment)

Tests

Create an expense with merchant name Coffee Shop Downtown and description Lunch with client
Open the Search page
Enter merchant:coffee in the search bar
Verify the expense with merchant "Coffee Shop Downtown" appears in results
Enter description:lunch in the search bar
Verify expenses with partial description matches appear
Verify filter fields like amount, date, and currency still perform exact matching (unaffected)

Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Offline tests

This change only affects API query construction — offline behavior is unchanged.

Create an expense with merchant name Coffee Shop Downtown and description Lunch with client
Turn off network
Open the Search page
Enter merchant:coffee in the search bar
Verify the expense with merchant "Coffee Shop Downtown" appears in results
Enter description:lunch in the search bar
Verify expenses with partial description matches appear
Verify exact-match fields (amount, date, currency) are unaffected

QA Steps

Create an expense with merchant name Coffee Shop Downtown and description Lunch with client
Open the Search page
Enter merchant:coffee in the search bar
Verify the expense with merchant "Coffee Shop Downtown" appears in results
Enter description:lunch in the search bar
Verify expenses with partial description matches appear
Verify exact-match fields (amount, date, currency) are unaffected

Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

PR Author Checklist

Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

Kapture.2026-03-29.at.03.04.55.mp4

Android: mWeb Chrome

Kapture.2026-03-29.at.03.08.27.mp4

iOS: Native

Kapture.2026-03-29.at.02.12.16.mp4

iOS: mWeb Safari

Kapture.2026-03-29.at.02.48.33.mp4

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Kapture.2026-03-29.at.02.06.09.mp4

The search parser maps : to the eq (exact match) operator for all fields, which means merchant:coffee only finds expenses with the exact merchant "coffee" and not "Coffee shop". Text fields like merchant and description should use partial/substring matching. Add applyContainsOperatorToTextFields() which transforms the AST before sending to the backend, converting eq to contains for free-text fields. This enables partial matching while preserving the user-facing : syntax. Fixes Expensify#86235

…-text-field-contains

…patibility" This reverts commit fb2ed75.

melvin-bot · 2026-03-28T20:19:42Z

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codecov · 2026-03-28T20:55:40Z

Codecov Report

✅ Changes either increased or maintained existing code coverage, great job!

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
src/libs/SearchQueryUtils.ts	`77.09% <100.00%> (+0.57%)`	⬆️
src/libs/actions/Search.ts	`24.80% <100.00%> (ø)`
src/hooks/useSearchBulkActions.ts	`0.00% <0.00%> (ø)`
... and 6 files with indirect coverage changes

ikevin127 · 2026-03-28T22:01:34Z

Reviewer Checklist

I have verified the author checklist is complete (all boxes are checked off).
I verified the correct issue is linked in the ### Fixed Issues section above
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- I verified the steps for local testing are in the Tests section
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- I verified all numbers, amounts, dates and phone numbers shown in the product are using the localization methods
- I verified any copy / text that was added to the app is grammatically correct in English. It adheres to proper capitalization guidelines (note: only the first word of header/labels should be capitalized), and is either coming verbatim from figma or has been approved by marketing (in order to get marketing approval, ask the Bug Zero team member to add the Waiting for copy label to the issue)
- I verified proper file naming conventions were followed for any new files or renamed files. All non-platform specific files are named after what they export and are not named "index.js". All platform-specific files are named for the platform the code supports as outlined in the README.
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Screenshots/Videos

Android: HybridApp

screen-20260328-165331.mp4

Android: mWeb Chrome

screen-20260328-165455.mp4

iOS: HybridApp

Simulator.Screen.Recording.-.iPhone.17.Pro.Max.-.2026-03-28.at.16.35.43.mov

iOS: mWeb Safari

Simulator.Screen.Recording.-.iPhone.17.Pro.Max.-.2026-03-28.at.16.42.36.mov

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-03-28.at.16.51.41.mov

ikevin127

The implementation is solid, well-tested, and follows best practices - safe to merge.

Status: ✅ Approved

🔥 Edge Cases / Destructive Tests

Unicode/Emoji in text fields - Test international characters in merchant/description ✅ (tested w/ Sanskrit)
Very long text values - Test with 1000+ character merchant names
Special characters - Merchants containing :, -, $, etc ✅
savedSearch vs regular search - Ensure saved searches preserve original operators ✅
Concurrent rapid searches - Rapid typing with text filters should not corrupt state ✅
Backend error recovery - Network failure should preserve query integrity ✅

chuckdries

I'm a big fan of how you've done the unit tests for this. Very clean and easy to understand!

github-actions · 2026-03-30T16:00:29Z

🚧 @chuckdries has triggered a test Expensify/App build. You can view the workflow run here.

github-actions · 2026-03-30T16:05:19Z

🧪🧪 Use the links below to test this adhoc build on Android, iOS, and Web. Happy testing! 🧪🧪
Built from App PR #86598.

Android 🤖	iOS 🍎
https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rock-artifacts/ad-hoc/rock-android-Adhoc-cb8b1be-04b7b10-42b0d6122d78c4b55b2dc52c0031e54f3efcce18/index.html	https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rock-artifacts/ad-hoc/rock-ios-device-AdHoc-cb8b1be-04b7b10-e1e5ef8902ff36f58bd5edf17d05e2151bb54dc0/index.html

Web 🕸️
https://86598.pr-testing.expensify.com

👀 View the workflow run that generated this build 👀

OSBotify · 2026-03-30T16:09:16Z

✋ This PR was not deployed to staging yet because QA is ongoing. It will be automatically deployed to staging after the next production release.

OSBotify · 2026-03-31T20:05:08Z

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/chuckdries in version: 9.3.51-0 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

Bundle Size Analysis (Sentry):

Android
iOS

MelvinBot · 2026-03-31T20:09:16Z

🤖 Help Site Review for PR #86598

I reviewed the changes in this PR against the help site articles under docs/articles/. This PR changes merchant: and description: search filters from exact matching to partial/substring matching (e.g., merchant:coffee now matches "Coffee Shop Downtown").

Affected article: docs/articles/new-expensify/reports-and-expenses/Using-search-operators.md

Yes, changes are required. The article should be updated to reflect the new partial matching behavior. Here are the specific recommended edits:

1. Key rules section — add partial matching note

In the "Key rules for using search operators" section, add a new bullet after the quotes rule:

 - Add quotes for exact phrases: `description:"team lunch"`.
+- Text fields like `merchant:` and `description:` perform partial matching — `merchant:coffee` matches "Coffee Shop Downtown".
 - Supports relative dates: `date:this-week`.

2. Expense filters — clarify merchant matching

Update the merchant: description under "Available filters for Expenses":

-- `merchant:` – expense merchant name
+- `merchant:` – expense merchant name (partial match — `merchant:coffee` matches "Coffee Shop")

3. Task filters — clarify description matching

Update the description: description under "Available filters for Tasks":

-- `description:` – task description
+- `description:` – task description (partial match)

Other articles reviewed (no changes needed):

Search-and-Download-Expenses.md — covers exporting, not filter behavior
Using-Search-on-the-Reports-Page.md — covers role-based shortcuts, not filter syntax

Note: I cannot create the PR directly because wildan-m does not have write access to Expensify/App. A team member with write access can apply these three edits and open the help site PR.

OSBotify · 2026-04-02T19:56:12Z

🚀 Deployed to production by https://github.com/jasperhuangg in version: 9.3.51-10 🚀

platform	result
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	failure ❌
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

suneox · 2026-08-05T03:24:15Z

+ * for free-text filter fields (merchant, description). This enables partial/substring
+ * matching on the backend for text searches while preserving the user-facing `:` syntax.
+ */
+function applyContainsOperatorToTextFields(node: ASTNode): ASTNode {


Coming from Expensify/Expensify#643664 bugZero checklist:

This PR caused a regression where exporting a specific merchant group (e.g. Amazon) also exported expenses from merchants whose name contains it (e.g. Amazon Marketplace).

applyContainsOperatorToTextFields rewrote every merchant eq to contains — correct for free-text search, but it also rewrote the machine-generated group filter built by buildSpecificGroupQuery, so the backend returned substring matches and the exported rows drifted from the selected group.

The current fix in #97046 addresses this by adding an exactMatchFilterKeys allow-list to serializeQueryJSONForBackend / applyContainsOperatorToTextFields, so generated merchant-group filters keep eq while normal merchant: searches still use partial matching.

melvin-bot Bot assigned wildan-m Mar 28, 2026

Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/main' into wildan/86235-search…

4d232c1

…-text-field-contains

wildan-m force-pushed the wildan/86235-search-text-field-contains branch from 8625d87 to 4d232c1 Compare March 28, 2026 04:29

wildan-m added 7 commits March 28, 2026 11:32

Fix lint: move generic type to constructor

2da696f

Add unit tests for applyContainsOperatorToTextFields

8085068

Add applyContainsOperatorToTextFields tests to SearchQueryUtilsTest

894901b

Remove standalone test file, tests moved to SearchQueryUtilsTest

c2e92e1

Fix Prettier formatting in SearchQueryUtilsTest

df9f097

Also apply contains operator to rawFilterList for backend compatibility

fb2ed75

Revert "Also apply contains operator to rawFilterList for backend com…

58328d5

…patibility" This reverts commit fb2ed75.

wildan-m marked this pull request as ready for review March 28, 2026 20:19

wildan-m requested review from a team as code owners March 28, 2026 20:19

melvin-bot Bot requested review from heyjennahay and ikevin127 and removed request for a team March 28, 2026 20:19

wildan-m mentioned this pull request Mar 28, 2026

[Due for Payment 2026-04-09][$250] Search - Multi-word merchants are not searchable using keywords #86235

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chatgpt-codex-connector Bot reviewed Mar 28, 2026

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Comment thread src/libs/actions/Search.ts Outdated

Normalize text field operators via shared serializer for all backend …

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…commands

ikevin127 approved these changes Mar 28, 2026

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melvin-bot Bot requested a review from chuckdries March 28, 2026 23:56

chuckdries approved these changes Mar 30, 2026

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chuckdries merged commit cb8b1be into Expensify:main Mar 30, 2026
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OSBotify mentioned this pull request Mar 31, 2026

Deploy Checklist: New Expensify 2026-03-31 #86774

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MelvinBot mentioned this pull request Apr 14, 2026

Steph's chat with Melvin #87829

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suneox reviewed Aug 5, 2026

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1. Key rules section — add partial matching note

2. Expense filters — clarify merchant matching

3. Task filters — clarify description matching

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