1. A database storage method for encoding a database structure having a plurality of data records and a plurality of data fields, said method comprising the following steps: selecting a field of the database structure from the plurality of data fields; reading a plurality of data values from the selected field, each individual data value being read from a separate record; determining a plurality of field characteristics and a plurality of compaction criteria, the field characteristics being dependent on the data values within the selected field and the compaction criteria corresponding to a plurality of compaction methods wherein each compaction method has a relative priority level; identifying a first field characteristic from said plurality of field characteristics which satisfies a corresponding one of said compaction criteria, said first field characteristic corresponding to a first compaction method with the highest priority level of any remaining compaction methods which also have compaction criteria satisfied by a corresponding field characteristic; applying the first compaction method to the selected field to create a plurality of compacted data values, the compacted data values being reduced storage equivalents of the data values; and storing the compacted data values in a plurality of compacted records.
1. A database storage method for encoding a database structure having a plurality of data records and a plurality of data fields, said method comprising the following steps: selecting a field of the database structure from the plurality of data fields; reading a plurality of data values from the selected field, each individual data value being read from a separate record; determining a plurality of field characteristics and a plurality of compaction criteria, the field characteristics being dependent on the data values within the selected field and the compaction criteria corresponding to a plurality of compaction methods wherein each compaction method has a relative priority level; identifying a first field characteristic from said plurality of field characteristics which satisfies a corresponding one of said compaction criteria, said first field characteristic corresponding to a first compaction method with the highest priority level of any remaining compaction methods which also have compaction criteria satisfied by a corresponding field characteristic; applying the first compaction method to the selected field to create a plurality of compacted data values, the compacted data values being reduced storage equivalents of the data values; and storing the compacted data values in a plurality of compacted records. 5. A database storage method according to claim 1 wherein the compaction methods comprise single-field encoding, multiple-field combining, pattern suppression, numeric substitution, and text compression; and the relative priority levels of the compaction methods are from highest to lowest priority as follows: multiple-field combining, single-field encoding, pattern suppression, numeric substitution, and text compression.