feat(ios): implement regex support for toHaveText

Wire up the existing matchesJSRegex utility (already used by ValuePredicate
for by.text/by.id/by.label) to the ValueExpectation path so that
toHaveText(/regex/) works on iOS, matching Android behaviour.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: noomorph

detox/ios/Detox/Invocation/Expectation.swift

@@ -114,7 +114,9 @@ class Expectation : CustomStringConvertible {
         } else if expectationClass == SliderPositionExpectation.self {
 			return SliderPositionExpectation(kind: kind, modifiers: modifiers, element: element, timeout: timeout, value: params!.first! as! Double, tolerance: params!.count > 1 ? (params![1] as! Double) : nil)
 		} else if expectationClass == ValueExpectation.self {
-			return ValueExpectation(kind: kind, modifiers: modifiers, element: element, timeout: timeout, key: keyMapping[kind]!, value: params!.first!)
+			let rawParams = dictionaryRepresentation[Keys.params] as? [Any]
+			let isRegex = rawParams != nil && rawParams!.count > 1 ? (rawParams![1] as? Bool ?? false) : false
+			return ValueExpectation(kind: kind, modifiers: modifiers, element: element, timeout: timeout, key: keyMapping[kind]!, value: params!.first!, isRegex: isRegex)
 		} else if expectationClass == ToBeVisibleExpectation.self {
 			let percentDouble = params != nil && params!.count > 0 ? params!.first as? Double : nil
 			let percent = percentDouble != nil ? UInt(exactly: percentDouble!) : nil
@@ -250,25 +252,32 @@ class ToExistExpectation : Expectation {
 class ValueExpectation : Expectation {
 	let key : String
 	let value : CustomStringConvertible
-	
-	required init(kind: String, modifiers: Set<String>, element: Element, timeout: TimeInterval, key: String, value: CustomStringConvertible) {
+	let isRegex : Bool
+
+	required init(kind: String, modifiers: Set<String>, element: Element, timeout: TimeInterval, key: String, value: CustomStringConvertible, isRegex: Bool = false) {
 		self.key = key
 		self.value = value
-		
+		self.isRegex = isRegex
+
 		super.init(kind: kind, modifiers: modifiers, element: element, timeout: timeout)
 	}
-	
+
 	required init(kind: String, modifiers: Set<String>, element: Element, timeout: TimeInterval) {
 		fatalError("Call the other initializer")
 	}
-	
+
 	override func evaluate(with element: Element) -> Bool {
+		if isRegex {
+			guard let elementValue = NSExpression(forKeyPath: key).expressionValue(with: element, context: nil) as? String,
+				  let regexString = value as? String else { return false }
+			return elementValue.matchesJSRegex(to: regexString)
+		}
 		return NSComparisonPredicate(leftExpression: NSExpression(forKeyPath: key), rightExpression: NSExpression(forConstantValue: value), modifier: .direct, type: .equalTo, options: []).evaluate(with: element)
 	}
-	
+
 	override var additionalDescription: String {
 		get {
-			return "(\(key) == “\(value)”)"
+			return isRegex ? "(\(key) matches \(value))" : "(\(key) == “\(value)”)"
 		}
 	}
 }

detox/ios/Detox/Utilities/String+matchesJSRegex.swift

@@ -19,19 +19,12 @@ extension String {
 		let pattern = pattern(from: jsRegex, flagsChars: flagsChars)
 		let options = regexOptions(from: flagsChars)
 
-		let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: options)
-		let searchRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: self.utf16.count)
-		let match = regex.firstMatch(
-			in: self,
-			options: [],
-			range: searchRange
-		)
-
-		guard let match = match else {
+		guard let regex = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: options) else {
 			return false
 		}
-
-		return searchRange == match.range
+		let searchRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: self.utf16.count)
+		let match = regex.firstMatch(in: self, options: [], range: searchRange)
+		return match.map { $0.range == searchRange } ?? false
 	}
 
 	private func flagsChars(from jsRegex: String) -> [Character] {

detox/src/ios/expectTwo.js

@@ -78,8 +78,9 @@ class Expect {
   }
 
   toHaveText(text) {
+    const isRegex = isRegExp(text);
     const traceDescription = expectDescription.toHaveText(text);
-    return this.expect('toHaveText', traceDescription, text);
+    return this.expect('toHaveText', traceDescription, isRegex ? text.toString() : text, isRegex || undefined);
   }
 
   toNotHaveText(text) {

detox/src/ios/expectTwo.test.js

@@ -483,6 +483,24 @@ describe('expectTwo', () => {
     expect(testCall).toDeepEqual(jsonOutput);
   });
 
+  it(`should parse correct JSON for toHaveText expectation with RegExp`, async () => {
+    const testCall = await e.expect(e.element(e.by.id('UniqueId204'))).toHaveText(/I contain .* text/i);
+    const jsonOutput = {
+      invocation: {
+        type: 'expectation',
+        predicate: {
+          type: 'id',
+          value: 'UniqueId204',
+          isRegex: false,
+        },
+        expectation: 'toHaveText',
+        params: ['/I contain .* text/i', true]
+      }
+    };
+
+    expect(testCall).toDeepEqual(jsonOutput);
+  });
+
   it(`should parse correct JSON for toHaveId expectation`, async () => {
     const testCall = await e.expect(e.element(e.by.text('Product')).atIndex(2)).toHaveId('ProductId002');
     const jsonOutput = {

detox/test/e2e/04.assertions.test.js

@@ -37,6 +37,14 @@ describe('Assertions', () => {
     await expect(driver.textElement).toHaveText('I contain some text');
   });
 
+  it('should assert an element has text matching a regex', async () => {
+    await expect(driver.textElement).toHaveText(/I contain .* text/);
+  });
+
+  it('should assert an element does not have text matching a regex', async () => {
+    await expect(driver.textElement).not.toHaveText(/I contain .* banana/);
+  });
+
   it('should assert an element has (accessibility) label', async () => {
     await expect(driver.textElement).toHaveLabel('I contain some text');
   });

docs/api/expect.md

@@ -50,10 +50,15 @@ await expect(element(by.id('emailInput'))).toBeFocused();
 
 ### `toHaveText(text)`
 
-Expects the element to have the specified text.
+Expects the element to have the specified text. Accepts a string for exact matching or a regular expression for pattern matching (see [regex flags](matchers.md#regex-matching)).
+
+:::note
+When using a regular expression, it must match the **entire** text of the element on both iOS and Android — partial matches are not supported. Use `.*` to match surrounding content, e.g. `/.*Hello.*/` to check that the text contains "Hello".
+:::
 
 ```js
 await expect(element(by.id('mainTitle'))).toHaveText('Welcome back!');
+await expect(element(by.id('dynamicTitle'))).toHaveText(/^Welcome back.*/i);
 ```
 
 ### `toHaveLabel(label)`