Patent ID: 7702688

Claim:
A method comprising: accessing a memory including a plurality of data files, wherein each of the data files includes a file information field containing a character string; retrieving, directly from the data files, at least a first part of the file information field associated with the data files; presenting the at least first part of the file information field via a display; identifying, among the character strings in the presented at least first part of the file information field, a character position for which the character associated with each of the data files has a common value; determining a first diverging character position among the character strings in the presented at least first part of the file information field, where the first diverging character position is adjacent to the identified character position; receiving, via an input device, an input corresponding to at least one symbol; comparing the at least one symbol to each of the characters in the first diverging character position; determining a number of characters that differ in a left-most diverging character position and a right-most diverging character position in the character strings, wherein the determining the first diverging character position is performed beginning from the right-most diverging character position instead of the left-most diverging character position based on the number of different characters in the left-most diverging character position being fewer than the number of different characters in the right-most diverging character position; and presenting, based on a result of the comparing, at least a second part of the file information field associated with select ones of the data files which include a character, in the first diverging character position of the at least first part of the file information field, that matches the at least one symbol.