Methods are provided for identifying user-directory records that match input strings entered into a packet-based telephone. Each input string comprises symbols associated with character sets, and each record comprises multiple attributes. A record matches a set of input strings when, independent of the order of the input strings, there is a one-to-one correspondence matching the input strings with an equal number of attributes of the record. An input string matches an attribute when, on a character-by-character, symbol-by-symbol basis, the characters of at least a portion of the attribute are elements of the character sets associated with the symbols of the input string. Subsets of matching records are dynamically sent to the packet-based telephone for display.