[Due for payment 2025-10-30] [$250] Whitespace in chat selector prevents matching emails when adding a new user

[m-natarajan]

If you haven’t already, check out our contributing guidelines for onboarding and email contributors@expensify.com to request to join our Slack channel!

---

Version Number: 9.2.30-0
Reproducible in staging?: Y
Reproducible in production?: Y
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from TestRail:
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers):
Logs: https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/4856
Expensify/Expensify Issue URL:
Issue reported by: @quinthar
Slack conversation (hyperlinked to channel name): #Convert

Action Performed:

1. Navigate to "Start chat"
2. Type a valid user email with a space before or after it
3. Observe that the user does not appear in the suggestion list or cannot be selected

Expected Result:

The input should automatically trim whitespace before and after the typed email.

Actual Result:

The email fails to match, and no user is found.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

Select the officially supported platforms where the issue was reproduced:

• Android: App
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: App
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• iOS: mWeb Chrome
• Windows: Chrome
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• MacOS: Desktop

Platforms Tested:

On which of our officially supported platforms was this issue tested:

• Android: App
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: App
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• iOS: mWeb Chrome
• Windows: Chrome
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• MacOS: Desktop

Screenshots/Videos

Add any screenshot/video evidence

Recording.1765.mp4

View all open jobs on GitHub

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021978118121605469934
• Upwork Job ID: 1978118121605469934
• Last Price Increase: 2025-10-14
• Automatic offers:
• nyomanjyotisa | Contributor | 109166022

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @sakluger

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @sakluger (Bug), see https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/14418 for more details. Please add this bug to a GH project, as outlined in the SO.

[nyomanjyotisa]

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

Whitespace in chat selector prevents matching emails when adding a new user

What is the root cause of that problem?

We are not trimming the searchInputValue before processing it

App/src/libs/OptionsListUtils/index.ts

Line 2417 in 0fb8f13

const searchValue = parsedPhoneNumber.possible && parsedPhoneNumber.number?.e164 ? parsedPhoneNumber.number.e164 : searchInputValue.toLowerCase();

This untrimmed searchValue then passed to getUserToInviteOption, which performs email validation using Str.isValidEmail which does not trim the input

This issue only affects emails without accounts (new users) because the search uses strict email validation with Str.isValidEmail which requires exact email format. Since Str.isValidEmail("user@gmail.com ") returns false due to trailing whitespace, the user is not added to the suggestion list

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

We should trim the searchInputValue at the beginning of the filterOptions function before any processing occurs

    const trimmedSearchInput = searchInputValue.trim();
    
    // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/prefer-nullish-coalescing
    const parsedPhoneNumber = parsePhoneNumber(appendCountryCodeWithCountryCode(Str.removeSMSDomain(trimmedSearchInput), countryCode || CONST.DEFAULT_COUNTRY_CODE));
    const searchValue = parsedPhoneNumber.possible && parsedPhoneNumber.number?.e164 ? parsedPhoneNumber.number.e164 : trimmedSearchInput.toLowerCase();

App/src/libs/OptionsListUtils/index.ts

Lines 2416 to 2417 in 0fb8f13

	const parsedPhoneNumber = parsePhoneNumber(appendCountryCodeWithCountryCode(Str.removeSMSDomain(searchInputValue), countryCode || CONST.DEFAULT_COUNTRY_CODE));
	const searchValue = parsedPhoneNumber.possible && parsedPhoneNumber.number?.e164 ? parsedPhoneNumber.number.e164 : searchInputValue.toLowerCase();

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

We can trim the input in getUserToInviteOption function

App/src/libs/OptionsListUtils/index.ts

Lines 1359 to 1411 in 0fb8f13

	function getUserToInviteOption({
	searchValue,
	loginsToExclude = {},
	selectedOptions = [],
	showChatPreviewLine = false,
	shouldAcceptName = false,
	}: GetUserToInviteConfig): SearchOptionData | null {
	if (!searchValue) {
	return null;
	}
	const parsedPhoneNumber = parsePhoneNumber(appendCountryCode(Str.removeSMSDomain(searchValue)));
	const isCurrentUserLogin = isCurrentUser({login: searchValue} as PersonalDetails);
	const isInSelectedOption = selectedOptions.some((option) => 'login' in option && option.login === searchValue);
	const isValidEmail = Str.isValidEmail(searchValue) && !Str.isDomainEmail(searchValue) && !Str.endsWith(searchValue, CONST.SMS.DOMAIN);
	const isValidPhoneNumber = parsedPhoneNumber.possible && Str.isValidE164Phone(getPhoneNumberWithoutSpecialChars(parsedPhoneNumber.number?.input ?? ''));
	const isInOptionToExclude = loginsToExclude[addSMSDomainIfPhoneNumber(searchValue).toLowerCase()];
	if (isCurrentUserLogin || isInSelectedOption || (!isValidEmail && !isValidPhoneNumber && !shouldAcceptName) || isInOptionToExclude) {
	return null;
	}
	// Generates an optimistic account ID for new users not yet saved in Onyx
	const optimisticAccountID = generateAccountID(searchValue);
	const personalDetailsExtended = {
	...allPersonalDetails,
	[optimisticAccountID]: {
	accountID: optimisticAccountID,
	login: searchValue,
	},
	};
	const userToInvite = createOption([optimisticAccountID], personalDetailsExtended, null, {
	showChatPreviewLine,
	});
	userToInvite.isOptimisticAccount = true;
	userToInvite.login = isValidEmail || isValidPhoneNumber ? searchValue : '';
	// eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/prefer-nullish-coalescing
	userToInvite.text = userToInvite.text || searchValue;
	// eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/prefer-nullish-coalescing
	userToInvite.alternateText = userToInvite.alternateText || searchValue;
	// If user doesn't exist, use a fallback avatar
	userToInvite.icons = [
	{
	source: FallbackAvatar,
	id: optimisticAccountID,
	name: searchValue,
	type: CONST.ICON_TYPE_AVATAR,
	},
	];
	return userToInvite;
	}

[dmkt9]

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

What is the root cause of that problem?

1. NewChatPage uses getUserToInviteOption to retrieve the user list options.
   

   App/src/pages/NewChatPage.tsx

   Lines 137 to 139 in 89c45c9

   	participantOption = getUserToInviteOption({
   	searchValue: participant?.login,
   	});

2. In getUserToInviteOption, the searchValue is not trimmed before being passed to the Str.isValidEmail function. Additionally, Str.isValidEmail itself does not perform internal trimming.
   

   App/src/libs/OptionsListUtils/index.ts

   Line 1369 in 89c45c9

   const isValidEmail = Str.isValidEmail(searchValue) && !Str.isDomainEmail(searchValue) && !Str.endsWith(searchValue, CONST.SMS.DOMAIN);

   
   https://github.com/Expensify/expensify-common/blob/3a42edcaa0daa1a63d423c68e401060b94c7e6a4/lib/str.ts#L408

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

We should trim the str inside Str.isValidEmail before passing it to the regular expression match.

isValidEmail(str: string): boolean {
    const trimmedStr = str.trim();
    const unicodeVersion = Punycode.toUnicode(trimmedStr);
    if (String(unicodeVersion).match(Constants.CONST.REG_EXP.EMOJI_RULE)) {
        return false;
    }
    return !!String(trimmedStr).match(Constants.CONST.REG_EXP.EMAIL);
},

https://github.com/Expensify/expensify-common/blob/3a42edcaa0daa1a63d423c68e401060b94c7e6a4/lib/str.ts#L408-L414

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021978118121605469934

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @Ollyws (External)

[Ollyws]

Both proposals are essentially saying 'trim the whitespace', I don't think it's necessary to put it in the isValidEmail function as an email with whitespace isn't a valid email technically (I assume). So @nyomanjyotisa's proposal LGTM.

🎀👀🎀 C+ reviewed