Abstract: A multilingual database system is disclosed in which data can be searched and retrieved by a user whether or not that data is in the user's own language. The data to be stored in the database is first encoded according to a master (or universal) sort order.

Abstract: A method of facilitating the alphabetical dictionary sorting, by computer, of words based upon characters from a multilingual alphabet, especially the repertoire of characters defined in the new standard alphabet known as ISO 8859/1. This invention uses an encoding scheme to determine the language dependent sort orders for the characters defined in ISO 8859/1. This encoding scheme removes the dependency of sorting on the character set's internal collating representation. This method allows the same sorting software to support many (if not all) of the languages supported by the alphabet. By storing the language dependent sort orders as data files, the sorting software is immune to the user's language and hence is highly portable. The number of languages supported is directly proportional to the number of data files available.