Patent ID: 8832160

Claim:
In a computing device, a method of creating a field structure that represents a plurality of data types, the method comprising: for each given data type of the plurality of data types, the computing device receiving from a user an indication of a desired ordinal value of the given data type, the indication of the desired ordinal value of the given data type being based on a drag and drop operation performed by the user; for each given data type of the plurality of data types, the computing device receiving from the user an indication of a desired character length to associate with the given data type; based on (i) the desired ordinal value and (ii) the desired character length of each data type of the plurality of data types, the computing device constructing a string structure that comprises a plurality of fields, wherein each field of the plurality of fields comprises a number of instances of a given character representing a unique data type of the plurality of data types, the number of instances of a given character in a given field being equal to the desired character length of the data type the given field represents, and wherein each field of the plurality of fields is positioned in the field structure according to the desired ordinal value of the data type the given field represents; the computing device constructing a string based on the string structure by assembling a plurality of data codes based on an input from the user, each respective data code of the plurality of data codes representing a unique data type of the plurality of data types; for each respective data code assembled in the string, the computing device using the respective data code as a key to extract a respective data-entry from an associated database; and the computing device generating a report using each extracted data-entry.