Patent ID: 8504112

Claim:
A method of searching a phone book in a portable device, the method comprising: selecting, by a key input unit included in a portable device, a desired item of a plurality of items included in a phone book list; searching, by a controller included in the portable device, for at least one item associated with the selected item in a database according to a priority; displaying, by a display unit, both the selected item and the searched associated at least one item; and processing an occurring event to update the database based on the occurring event: wherein the occurring event is at least one event of a voice communication event, an image communication event, a message transmission event and a message reception event that occurs after the selected desired item and the searched associated at least one item are simultaneously displayed, and the displaying both the selected item and the searched associated at least one item includes displaying the selected item at a first portion of a display area of the display unit and the searched associated at least one item around the selected item.