[Search] Clear selections when sorting to prevent stale selection state by abzokhattab · Pull Request #72334 · Expensify/App

abzokhattab · 2025-10-10T14:19:03Z

Explanation of Change

Fixed Issues

$ #70594
PROPOSAL: #70594 (comment)

Tests

Preconditions: Account with atleast 50 expenses

On web or desktop: User is logged in
Go to Reports tab on web -> Expenses
Scroll down to loads all expenses
Select all expenses
Try to sort them by e.g. date
Validate that the selection is cleared and no item is selected after sorting.

Offline tests

Same as tests

QA Steps

Same as tests

PR Author Checklist

Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

Not applicable on mobile

Screen.Recording.2025-10-27.at.18.13.37.mov

Android: mWeb Chrome

Not applicable on mobile

Screen.Recording.2025-10-27.at.18.19.39.mov

iOS: Native

Not applicable on mobile

Screen.Recording.2025-10-27.at.18.04.03.mov

iOS: mWeb Safari

Not applicable on mobile

Screen.Recording.2025-10-27.at.18.23.48.mov

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screen.Recording.2025-10-27.at.18.00.44.mov

MacOS: Desktop

Screen.Recording.2025-10-27.at.18.39.05.mov

abzokhattab · 2025-10-10T14:21:59Z

Solution Update

Hey! So while fixing this bug, I discovered something interesting.

The original issue was that selections got misaligned because we were using unsorted data to build the selection state, but showing sorted data in the UI. Easy fix, right? Just use getSortedSections() everywhere.

But then I realized: when you sort, it's not just reordering - it's actually fetching fresh data from the backend. Which means the data could be completely different (new expenses added, some deleted, etc.).

So keeping selections doesn't really make sense anymore. The user thinks they have 50 items selected, but some might not even exist in the new result set.

New approach: When sorting changes, just clear all selections. Clean state, fresh start.

Here is a video pointing out to what i mean and the behaviour in the new solution

Screen.Recording.2025-10-10.at.15.52.20.mov

let me know what you think about tihs approach @techievivek @eVoloshchak @cead22

codecov · 2025-10-10T14:30:09Z

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 0% with 1 line in your changes missing coverage. Please review.

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
src/components/Search/index.tsx	0.00%	1 Missing ⚠️

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
src/components/Search/index.tsx	`0.00% <0.00%> (ø)`

... and 6 files with indirect coverage changes

🚀 New features to boost your workflow:

❄️ Test Analytics: Detect flaky tests, report on failures, and find test suite problems.
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abzokhattab · 2025-10-21T14:16:51Z

there seems to be an issue with the assigned c+ reviewer shouldnt it be @eVoloshchak ?

cc @techievivek

cead22 · 2025-10-25T00:43:41Z

New approach: When sorting changes, just clear all selections. Clean state, fresh start.

I agree with this, and was thinking this should be the approach when I saw the issue before I read your comment 👍

eVoloshchak · 2025-10-27T08:48:04Z

New approach: When sorting changes, just clear all selections. Clean state, fresh start.

Agree with this too. We already clear the selection when a new search text is entered, sorting is conceptually the same, we're just changing the search query

abzokhattab · 2025-10-27T08:48:59Z

Great .. working on it today.

…tions-on-sort

melvin-bot · 2025-10-27T17:46:14Z

@eVoloshchak Please copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

eVoloshchak · 2025-10-29T20:16:03Z

src/components/Search/SearchContext.tsx

    const clearSelectedTransactions: SearchContextProps['clearSelectedTransactions'] = useCallback(
        (searchHashOrClearIDsFlag, shouldTurnOffSelectionMode = false) => {
            if (typeof searchHashOrClearIDsFlag === 'boolean') {
-                setSelectedTransactions([]);


What is the limitation of passing an empty array to setSelectedTransactions? It looks like it's supposed to set selectedTransactionIDs automatically.
Can we modify setSelectedTransactions instead?

setSelectedTransactions([]) alone was not working, so I needed to add setSearchContextData.

however after merging latest main, setSelectedTransactions already handles this internally. so i reverted this change

…tions-on-sort

eVoloshchak · 2025-11-04T14:20:50Z

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
I verified testing steps are clear and they cover the changes made in this PR
- I verified the steps for local testing are in the Tests section
- I verified the steps for Staging and/or Production testing are in the QA steps section
- I verified the steps cover any possible failure scenarios (i.e. verify an input displays the correct error message if the entered data is not correct)
- I turned off my network connection and tested it while offline to ensure it matches the expected behavior (i.e. verify the default avatar icon is displayed if app is offline)
I checked that screenshots or videos are included for tests on all platforms
I included screenshots or videos for tests on all platforms
I verified that the composer does not automatically focus or open the keyboard on mobile unless explicitly intended. This includes checking that returning the app from the background does not unexpectedly open the keyboard.
I verified tests pass on all platforms & I tested again on:
- Android: HybridApp
- Android: mWeb Chrome
- iOS: HybridApp
- iOS: mWeb Safari
- MacOS: Chrome / Safari
- MacOS: Desktop
If there are any errors in the console that are unrelated to this PR, I either fixed them (preferred) or linked to where I reported them in Slack
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- I verified that any callback methods that were added or modified are named for what the method does and never what callback they handle (i.e. toggleReport and not onIconClick).
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- I verified that any new or modified comments were clear, correct English, and explained "why" the code was doing something instead of only explaining "what" the code was doing.
- I verified any copy / text shown in the product is localized by adding it to src/languages/* files and using the translation method
- 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.
- I verified the JSDocs style guidelines (in STYLE.md) were followed
If a new code pattern is added I verified it was agreed to be used by multiple Expensify engineers
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If the PR modifies code that runs when editing or sending messages, I tested and verified there is no unexpected behavior for all supported markdown - URLs, single line code, code blocks, quotes, headings, bold, strikethrough, and italic.
If the PR modifies a generic component, I tested and verified that those changes do not break usages of that component in the rest of the App (i.e. if a shared library or component like Avatar is modified, I verified that Avatar is working as expected in all cases)
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If the PR modifies the UI (e.g. new buttons, new UI components, changing the padding/spacing/sizing, moving components, etc) or modifies the form input styles:
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If a new page is added, I verified it's using the ScrollView component to make it scrollable when more elements are added to the page.
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I have checked off every checkbox in the PR reviewer checklist, including those that don't apply to this PR.

Screenshots/Videos

Android: HybridApp

Screen.Recording.2025-11-04.at.15.15.41.mov

Android: mWeb Chrome

Screen.Recording.2025-11-04.at.15.11.03.mov

iOS: HybridApp

Screen.Recording.2025-11-04.at.15.16.05.mov

iOS: mWeb Safari

Screen.Recording.2025-11-04.at.15.17.11.mov

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screen.Recording.2025-11-04.at.15.07.44.mov

MacOS: Desktop

Screen.Recording.2025-11-04.at.15.20.19.mov

eVoloshchak

LGTM!

OSBotify · 2025-11-05T02:20:30Z

✋ 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 · 2025-11-05T20:37:37Z

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/cead22 in version: 9.2.45-0 🚀

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

OSBotify · 2025-11-06T23:20:10Z

🚀 Deployed to production by https://github.com/luacmartins in version: 9.2.45-6 🚀

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

[Search] Clear selections when sorting to prevent stale selection state

c3ef455

melvin-bot bot assigned abzokhattab Oct 10, 2025

abzokhattab mentioned this pull request Oct 21, 2025

[Due for payment 2025-11-13] [$250] Search - Some expenses are unselected after sorting #70594

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16 tasks

abzokhattab added 2 commits October 27, 2025 17:48

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into fix/70594-clear-selec…

b10e470

…tions-on-sort

cleaning up comments

35eafa9

abzokhattab marked this pull request as ready for review October 27, 2025 17:46

abzokhattab requested a review from a team as a code owner October 27, 2025 17:46

melvin-bot bot requested review from eVoloshchak and removed request for a team October 27, 2025 17:46

eVoloshchak reviewed Oct 29, 2025

View reviewed changes

abzokhattab added 5 commits October 31, 2025 19:21

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into fix/70594-clear-selec…

8c4cd49

…tions-on-sort

adding setSelectedTransactions([]) back to clearSelectedTransactions

129c275

reverting setSearchContextData changes

a757586

minor edit

efd6a1e

minor edit

4c7bb70

abzokhattab requested a review from eVoloshchak October 31, 2025 19:24

eVoloshchak approved these changes Nov 4, 2025

View reviewed changes

melvin-bot bot requested a review from cead22 November 4, 2025 14:23

cead22 approved these changes Nov 5, 2025

View reviewed changes

cead22 merged commit 0cd09c8 into Expensify:main Nov 5, 2025
26 checks passed

OSBotify mentioned this pull request Nov 5, 2025

Deploy Checklist: New Expensify 2025-11-05 #74371

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Explanation of Change

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