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. 10. A database storage method according to claim 1, wherein one of the compaction methods is numeric substitution comprising the steps of: identifying any data values which are numeric; computing a binary equivalent of each data value that is numeric; and creating the compacted data values by replacing the data values that are numeric with the binary equivalent of the data values.