Patent ID: 6928446

Claim:
A method for searching for data records in a main data file having a plurality of data records wherein each data record includes one or more data fields and bitmask fields having a bitmask value indicative of data in a corresponding one of the data fields, the method comprising: transmitting to a user a first mark-up language document having a first plurality of parameters that are selectable by a user, each of the first plurality of selectable parameters having an associated bitmask value; in response to the user selecting one of the first plurality of selectable parameters of the first mark-up language document, receiving the bitmask value associated with the selected parameter of the first plurality of selectable parameters at a searching program; transmitting to the user a second mark-up language document having a second plurality of parameters that are selectable by the user, each of the second plurality of selectable parameters having an associated bitmask value; in response to the user selecting one of the second plurality of selectable parameters of the second mark-up language document, receiving the bitmask value associated with the selected parameter of the second plurality of selectable parameters at the searching program; and causing the searching program to select those data records of the plurality of data records in the main data file that have a bitmask value in a bitmask data field that matches both the bitmask value associated with the selected parameter of the first plurality of selectable parameters and the bitmask value associated with the selected parameter of the second plurality of selectable parameters whereby each data record so selected represents data for which the user searched.