Patent ID: 7366984

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for determining a contact associated with a character based on phonetic codes, the method comprising: associating a contact with a character; associating the character with a plurality of phonetic codes; storing the character; receiving an input string that includes an entered phonetic code; obtaining the character from storage; decoding the character to identify the plurality of phonetic codes associated with the character, wherein decoding the character includes identifying a code value associated with the character, associating the code value of the character with a pointer-to-reading table, wherein the pointer-to-reading table provides an index to a pointer-to-multiple-readings table, wherein the pointer-to-multiple-readings table provides an index into a readings table to identify the plurality of phonetic codes associated with the character; comparing the entered phonetic codes of the input string with the plurality of phonetic codes of the character to determine whether a match exists; and displaying the contact associated with the character when the match exists.