Patent ID: 8554781

Claim:
A method for retrieving data from a database, the database including a plurality of database records, each database record having one or more text fields containing ordered characters from an alphabet, the method comprising: providing a keypad comprising a plurality of keys, each key of the plurality of keys having exactly one character of a subset of the alphabet displayed thereon, and wherein each key of the plurality of keys is exclusively operable for inputting the character displayed thereon, wherein the keypad does not include any key operable for inputting any character of the alphabet that does not belong to the subset; wherein the subset of the alphabet comprises a plurality of different characters of the alphabet and consists of no more than the smaller of half of the alphabet or sixteen characters of the alphabet; receiving, from the keypad, a search string that includes an ordered sequence of a plurality of characters of the subset and no characters of the alphabet that do not belong to the subset; responsive to receiving the search string, selectively retrieving, by a processor, a non- negative integer number of database records, wherein each retrieved database record includes the characters of the search string interspersed within a predefined function of at least one text field of the database record, such that the subset characters interspersed within the predefined function appear in the same order as the characters of the search string; and if the non-negative integer number is at least one, presenting the retrieved database records.