INDEXING LONG WORD LISTS IN DATABASES

A vehicle navigation system having an input device, a storage device, a processor, and an output device. The storage device stores a database of geographical locations, such as the names of states, cities, streets, or countries. The database has a data list that includes data sub-lists, where the data sub-lists may have one or more data sub-list elements. Each data sub-list may have an assigned unique name. The data sub-lists also may be divided into parts, such that each part is assigned a unique name. The processor is operative to index the data sub-lists or the parts of a divided data sub-list. The processor may be further operative to search the database for a data sub-list element given an input from a user, and the output device may output one or more data sub-list elements from the database based on the search performed by the processor.