Patent ID: 7756886

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for selecting elements, comprising: receiving input of a first character string (CS); obtaining, using a processor, a list comprising a first high level (HL) element and a first plurality of low level (LL) elements, wherein each of the first plurality of LL elements is a type of the first HL element; identifying, in the list, an element of the first plurality of LL elements by matching the first CS to a portion of the element of the first plurality of LL elements, wherein the element of the first plurality of LL elements includes the first CS; generating, using the processor, a filtered list comprising the first HL element and the first plurality of LL elements, wherein at least one of the first plurality of LL elements does not include the first CS; obtaining a second CS after generating the filtered list, wherein the second CS is distinct from the first CS; searching the list using a concatenation of the first CS and the second CS as a search criterion; generating an updated filtered list comprising a second HL element and a second plurality of LL elements, in response to searching the list using the concatenation, wherein the second HL element comprises a concatenation of the first CS and the second CS, and wherein at least one of the second plurality of LL elements does not include the concatenation; obtaining a third CS after generating the updated filtered list, wherein the third CS is distinct from the first CS and the second CS; searching the list using a second concatenation of the first CS, the second CS, and the third CS as a search criterion; determining that there is no match for the second concatenation; and adding a new LL element to the list of elements after determining that there is no match for the second concatenation.