1. A method of electronically providing financial data to one or more recipients, comprising: assembling a coded data structure comprising identifying data and a plurality of fields; the fields each including at least one value of an item of financial data, and the identifying data being insufficient to directly attach meaning to the values of the two or more fields but sufficient to indirectly attach meaning to the values of the two or more fields; transmitting the coded data structure in a data stream to the one or more recipients; and providing the one or more recipients with data external to the transmitted data structure sufficient to attach meaning to the plurality of fields in the transmitted data structure using the identifying data included in the transmitted data structure.