Patent ID: 8108437

Claim:
A method comprising: providing an associative array comprising a plurality of entries corresponding to a plurality of symbolic properties, each entry in the plurality of entries associating a corresponding symbolic property in the plurality of symbolic properties with a value; providing a data array comprising a plurality of data array elements, each element in the data array storing a symbolic property from the plurality of symbolic properties and a sortable property value; storing a mapping table comprising a plurality of mapping table elements, each mapping table element storing an offset value, wherein, for each entry in the associative array associating a symbolic property with a value, the value identifies a mapping table element in the mapping table corresponding to the entry and the offset value stored by the corresponding mapping table element is indicative of a data array element storing the symbolic property; and for a first symbolic property from the plurality of symbolic properties, accessing a first data array element of the plurality of data array elements storing the first symbolic property using the associative array and the mapping table.