Data input method and system with multi-sub-field matching of user entries into a graphical input device

A system for inputting data into a computer comprising:

• a user's computer;
• a mark-up language-based browser loaded in the user's computer for generating and displaying on a display screen of a user's computer a graphical input device, the graphical input device being associated with an input parameter and a current set of user-selectable choices, each user-selectable choice having at least one pair of information fields separated by a delimiter and each information field comprising sequentially ordered characters;
• a physical input device;
• a client-side script module stored for execution within the user's computer and comprising computer-executable code
• for sensing user entry into the graphical input device of a character sequence comprising at least one character;
• for sequentially and character-by-character searching of at least an initial information field for each of the user-selectable choices according to each user-entered character;
• for each character sequence of at least one user-entered character that matches a corresponding character sequence in the initial information field of at least one user-selectable choice, highlighting at least one of the matching choices for the user;
• if no initial information field of the user-selectable choices has a character sequence matching the user-entered character sequence, highlighting for the user at least one user-selectable choice in a different information field whose initial characters match the user-entered character sequence, whereby a matching user-selectable choice can be located in more than one information field based on character-by-character comparison with the same user-entered character sequence;
• and
• upon sensing an acceptance action by the user, setting the input parameter to the graphical input device to the currently highlighted user-selectable choice.