Importance

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Abstract

A multi-field text string contains display characters in a first field and sort characters in a second field. For ideographic languages such as Japanese, the display characters may be Kanji symbols for the text string while the sort characters are phonetic syllabary representations of the Kanji symbols. A plurality of such multi-field text strings may then be sorted by the contents of the second field rather than the contents of the first. Despite both the multiple pronunciations or meanings associated with the same Kanji symbols in Japanese and the unsorted ordering of Kanji symbols within the Unicode character set for Japanese, a culturally correct sort order is achieved for the multi-field text strings. Additionally, the contents of the second field may be altered to artificially promote a specific item within the sort order, while displaying the sorted text strings utilizing the contents of the first field. The mechanism for promoting particular text strings within the sort order does not interfere with user viewing of the displayed text strings.

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First Claim