Patent ID: 8161405

Claim:
A method of accepting a user's selection of sort options for sorting a table, the method comprising: selecting a first representative shape for displaying the sort options, wherein the selecting of the first representative shape further comprises selecting the first representative shape in dependence upon columns of the table, wherein the selecting of the first representative shape further comprises identifying the number of columns of the table available for selection as a key for sorting and selecting a polygon having the same number of vertices as the number of columns available for selection as the key for sorting, wherein the key comprises a primary key; identifying one or more of the columns in the table available for selection as the key for sorting; displaying, together in a graphical user interface ('GUI'), identifications of the one or more columns and the first representative shape, wherein the displaying, together in the GUI, identifications of the one or more columns available for selection as a key for sorting and the first representative shape further comprise displaying together the representative shape and the table being sorted; receiving, as a user's selection of one of the columns as the primary key for sorting, an invocation of a GUI control associated with an identification of the selected column; selecting, after receiving a selection of a column in the table available for selection as the primary key, a second representative shape having the same number of vertices as the number of remaining unselected columns of the table; identifying one or more remaining unselected columns in the table available for selection as a secondary key relative to the primary key; displaying, together in a GUI, identifications of the one or more unselected columns and the second representative shape; and receiving, as a user's selection of one of the columns as the secondary key for sorting, an invocation of a GUI control associated with an identification of the selected column selected as the secondary key.