Patent ID: 7836407

Claim:
A method for using a computer system to interpret data, the computer system including a display screen, wherein the computer system controls a user interface presented to the display screen, the method comprising: accepting the data from a data entry field of the user interface, wherein the data is provided to the data entry field in a selected format, and wherein the selected format is different from a common data format expected by the user interface; normalizing the accepted data to conform to the common data format expected by the user interface, wherein normalizing is based on information about one or more of a geographic location of the user, a geographic location of a computer associated with the computer system, and a geographic location of a product being used, wherein normalizing the data further includes, identifying a type associated with the data entry field as a universal product code (UPC) number, converting the data into a raw data string using conversion rules associated with the type, the raw data string being a raw UPC number string, and validating the raw data string using validation rules associated with the type, wherein validating the raw data string further includes, determining a length of the raw UPC number string, comparing the length of the raw UPC number string to a pre-determined constant value, displaying an error message from the user interface if the length of the raw UPC number string is different from the pre-determined constant value, and determining whether the raw UPC number string is a valid UPC number if the length of the raw UPC number string is equal to the pre-determined constant value, wherein determining whether the raw UPC number string is valid further includes, calculating a first sum equal to a sum of all odd position numeric characters in the raw UPC number string, calculating a product equal to three times the sum of all the odd position numeric characters, calculating a second sum equal to a sum of all even position numeric characters in the raw UPC number string, calculating a third sum equal to the first sum plus the product, calculating a next highest multiple of ten of the third sum, and calculating a difference equal to the third sum minus the next highest multiple of ten of the third sum; and providing the normalized data in the common data format.