System and Method for Efficiently Storing Information Related to a Telephone number

• US 20100088319A1
• Filed: 12/07/2009
• Published: 04/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Van Natter, Douglas, Ensminger, John D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,945,603 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2237 Vectors, bitmaps or matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9017 using directory or table look-up use of a directory or look-up table in file systems G06F16/13
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 379/904 Auto-calling
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Information related to telephone numbers is efficiently stored and retrieved by generating an index based on a portion of a telephone number for which information is to be stored or retrieved. For example, the portion of the telephone number can be a prefix of the telephone number. Information related to the telephone number is stored and retrieved in accordance with the generated index.

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. A computer-implemented method for efficiently storing and retrieving information related to a telephone number, comprising computer-implemented operations for:

receiving a first telephone number;

generating a first telephone number portion by stripping one or more digits from the first telephone number;

generating a numerical value corresponding to the first telephone number portion;

retrieving a sorted list of telephone number portions, each of the telephone number portions corresponding to a position value defining a numerical position in the sorted list;

retrieving a range value defining number of telephone numbers associated with each of the telephone number portions in the sorted list;

determining whether the first telephone number portion is found in the sorted list of telephone number portions;

in response to determining that the first telephone number portion is found in the list of telephone number portions, computing an index value based on the position value, the range value, and the numerical value; and

storing the first telephone number in a memory location associated with the computed index value.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising computer-implemented operations for:

prior to determining whether the first telephone number portion is found in the sorted list of telephone number portions, stripping leading ones, leading zeroes, and country codes from the first telephone number.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising computer-implemented operations for:

prior to determining whether the first telephone number portion is found in the sorted list of telephone number portions, removing redundancy from the first telephone number.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the first telephone number portion comprises a six-digit prefix of the first telephone number.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the numerical value comprises a four digit suffix of the first telephone number.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein computing an index value based on the position value, the range value, and the numerical value comprises:

computing a product of the position value and the range value; and

computing the index value by adding the product and the numerical value.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising computer-implemented operations for:

in response to determining that the first telephone number portion is not found in the list of telephone number portions, returning an indication that the first telephone number is invalid.

9. A system for efficiently storing and retrieving information related to a telephone number, comprising:

a memory for storing a program containing code for efficiently storing and retrieving information related to the telephone number; and

a processor functionally coupled to the memory, the processor being responsive to computer-executable instructions contained in the program and configured to

receive a first telephone number,

generate a first telephone number portion by stripping one or more digits from the first telephone number,

generate a numerical value corresponding to the first telephone number portion,

retrieve a sorted list of telephone number portions, each of the telephone number portions corresponding to a position value defining a numerical position in the sorted list,

retrieve a range value defining number of telephone numbers associated with each of the telephone number portions in the sorted list,

determine whether the first telephone number portion is found in the sorted list of telephone number portions,

in response to determining that the first telephone number portion is found in the list of telephone number portions, compute an index value based on the position value, the range value, and the numerical value and

store the first telephone number in a memory location associated with the computed index value.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to:

prior to determining whether the first telephone number portion is found in the sorted list of telephone number portions, strip leading ones, leading zeroes, and country codes from the first telephone number.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to:

prior to determining whether the first telephone number portion is found in the sorted list of telephone number portions, remove redundancy from the first telephone number.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the first telephone number portion comprises a six-digit prefix of the first telephone number.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the numerical value comprises a four digit suffix of the first telephone number.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein to compute an index value based on the position value, the range value, and the numerical value, the processor is configured to:

compute a product of the position value and the range value, and

compute the index value by adding the product and the numerical value.

15. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon for execution by a processor to provide a method for efficiently storing and retrieving information related to a telephone number, the method comprising:

receiving a first telephone number;

generating a first telephone number portion by stripping one or more digits from the first telephone number;

generating a numerical value corresponding to the first telephone number portion;

retrieving a sorted list of telephone number portions, each of the telephone number portions corresponding to a position value defining a numerical position in the sorted list;

retrieving a range value defining number of telephone numbers associated with each of the telephone number portions in the sorted list;

determining whether the first telephone number portion is found in the sorted list of telephone number portions;

in response to determining that the first telephone number portion is found in the list of telephone number portions, computing an index value based on the position value, the range value, and the numerical value; and

storing the first telephone number in a memory location associated with the computed index value.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, the method further comprising:

prior to determining whether the first telephone number portion is found in the sorted list of telephone number portions, stripping leading ones, leading zeroes, and country codes from the first telephone number.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, the method further comprising:

prior to determining whether the first telephone number portion is found in the sorted list of telephone number portions, removing redundancy from the first telephone number.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the first telephone number portion comprises a six-digit prefix of the first telephone number.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the numerical value comprises a four digit suffix of the first telephone number.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein computing an index value based on the position value, the range value, and the numerical value comprises:

computing a product of the position value and the range value; and

computing the index value by adding the product and the numerical value.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising computer-implemented operations for:

in response to determining that the first telephone number portion is not found in the list of telephone number portions, returning an indication that the first telephone number is invalid.