Patent ID: 7212679

Claim:
A method for retrieving encoded data representing a symbol of a set of symbols which are stored in a memory, given an identifier for each symbol of the set of symbols, comprising the steps of: providing an index table containing a list of identifiers for different symbols of the set of symbols; sorting first by length and then by identifier, in ascending order, encoded data representing the symbols of the set of symbols, wherein the step of providing an index table includes providing an index table for each length, each index table containing a list of identifiers sorted in ascending order for symbols represented by encoded data of a particular length; identifying a location at which the data representing the symbol of the set of symbols is stored in the memory using the identifier for the symbol, wherein the identifying step includes searching the index table to locate the identifier for the symbol; if a location is identified, finding the address of the corresponding encoded data by summing the product of the length of the encoded data and the number of encoded data of that length over all encoded data lengths smaller than the one of the searched index table and adding the encoded data length of the searched table times the position of the identifier in the table; and retrieving the data representing the symbol from said memory.