Patent ID: 7542965

Claim:
A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method for searching a database comprising a plurality of electronic documents, said method comprising: assigning a first unique numeric category identifier to each of a plurality of document categories; assigning a second unique numeric category identifier to each of a plurality of document sub-categories, wherein each of the plurality of document sub-categories is associated with at least one of the plurality of document categories; assigning each of said electronic documents to at least one of the plurality of document categories and at least one of the plurality of document sub-categories associated with the assigned at least one of the plurality of document categories, wherein the assigned at least one of the plurality of document categories and the assigned at least one of the plurality of document sub-categories is based upon the content of each of said electronic documents; associating metadata with each of said electronic documents, said metadata comprising said first unique numeric category identifier corresponding to said document category assigned to each of said electronic documents and said second unique numeric category identifier corresponding to said document sub-category assigned to each of said electronic documents; receiving a request to search said database, said search limited to documents assigned to a specified document category associated with said request and wherein said database comprises a second computer-readable storage medium; searching said metadata associated with each of said electronic documents; returning an identity of each of said electronic documents associated with metadata having a numeric category identifier associated with said specified document category, said identities returned as a list of document identifiers and an index into said list corresponding to a one of said electronic documents; receiving a request to display a second document, the second document identified in said list; and utilizing said index and said list to identify said second document and to retrieve said second document from said database without performing a second search of the metadata associated with each of said electronic documents.