1. A method for predicting a structure of an inorganic material of interest, comprising the steps of: for an inorganic material of interest different from an inorganic reference material: selecting said inorganic material of interest; obtaining for said inorganic material of interest an initial value, said initial value being a selected one of a computed initial value and a measured initial value of at least one parameter of said inorganic material of interest, said initial value differing from a descriptor of an element present in said inorganic material of interest; providing said initial value of said at least one parameter for said inorganic material of interest to a computational procedure; computing with said computational procedure to obtain a result, said computational procedure being a selected one of: a computation that obtains a relationship between a known structure of at least one known inorganic reference material and a known initial value of a parameter of said at least one known inorganic reference material and that applies said relationship to said initial value of said at least one parameter for said inorganic material of interest, and a computation that compares said initial value of said at least one parameter for said inorganic material of interest with a known value of a corresponding parameter of said at least one known inorganic reference material, and that applies said comparison to a structural parameter of said known reference material; deducing a candidate structure of said inorganic material of interest based on said result; whereby data is generated to predict said structure of said inorganic material of interest.