Ignore extra whitespace in node texts

README.md

@@ -395,6 +395,25 @@ fireEvent.click(getElementByText('Submit'), rightClick)
 // default `button` property for click events is set to `0` which is a left click.
 ```
 
+#### `getNodeText(node: HTMLElement)`
+
+Returns the complete text content of a html element, removing any extra
+whitespace. The intention is to treat text in nodes exactly as how it is
+perceived by users in a browser, where any extra whitespace within words in the
+html code is not meaningful when the text is rendered.
+
+```javascript
+// <div>
+//   Hello
+//     World  !
+// </div>
+const text = getNodeText(container.querySelector('div')) // "Hello World !"
+```
+
+This function is also used internally when querying nodes by their text content.
+This enables functions like `getByText` and `queryByText` to work as expected,
+finding elements in the DOM similarly to how users would do.
+
 ## Custom Jest Matchers
 
 When using [jest][], we recommend that you import a set of custom matchers that

src/get-node-text.js

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+function getNodeText(node) {
+  return Array.from(node.childNodes)
+    .filter(
+      child => child.nodeType === Node.TEXT_NODE && Boolean(child.textContent),
+    )
+    .map(c => c.textContent)
+    .join(' ')
+    .trim()
+    .replace(/\s+/g, ' ')
+}
+
+export {getNodeText}

src/index.js

@@ -8,5 +8,6 @@ export * from './queries'
 export * from './wait'
 export * from './wait-for-element'
 export * from './matches'
+export * from './get-node-text'
 export * from './events'
 export * from './bind-element-to-queries'

src/matches.js

@@ -2,12 +2,16 @@ function matches(textToMatch, node, matcher) {
   if (typeof textToMatch !== 'string') {
     return false
   }
+  const normalizedText = textToMatch
+    .toLowerCase()
+    .trim()
+    .replace(/\s+/g, ' ')
   if (typeof matcher === 'string') {
-    return textToMatch.toLowerCase().includes(matcher.toLowerCase())
+    return normalizedText.includes(matcher.toLowerCase())
   } else if (typeof matcher === 'function') {
-    return matcher(textToMatch, node)
+    return matcher(normalizedText, node)
   } else {
-    return matcher.test(textToMatch)
+    return matcher.test(normalizedText)
   }
 }
 

src/queries.js

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import prettyFormat from 'pretty-format'
 import {matches} from './matches'
+import {getNodeText} from './get-node-text'
 
 const {DOMElement, DOMCollection} = prettyFormat.plugins
 
@@ -44,7 +45,7 @@ function queryByLabelText(container, text, {selector = '*'} = {}) {
 function queryByText(container, text, {selector = '*'} = {}) {
   return (
     Array.from(container.querySelectorAll(selector)).find(node =>
-      matches(getText(node), node, text),
+      matches(getNodeText(node), node, text),
     ) || null
   )
 }
@@ -62,19 +63,6 @@ function queryByAttribute(attribute, container, text) {
 const queryByPlaceholderText = queryByAttribute.bind(null, 'placeholder')
 const queryByTestId = queryByAttribute.bind(null, 'data-testid')
 
-// this is just a utility and not an exposed query.
-// There are no plans to expose this.
-function getText(node) {
-  return Array.from(node.childNodes)
-    .filter(
-      child => child.nodeType === Node.TEXT_NODE && Boolean(child.textContent),
-    )
-    .map(c => c.textContent)
-    .join(' ')
-    .trim()
-    .replace(/\s+/g, ' ')
-}
-
 // getters
 // the reason we're not dynamically generating these functions that look so similar:
 // 1. The error messages are specific to each one and depend on arguments