47. A combination as defined in claim 46, wherein the data characteristic statistics generated by the interrogation processor include a frequency distribution of characters found in the scanned record, a rate of occurrence for each character in the frequency distribution, and an entropy value; and the interrogation processor further comprises: means for completing a stabilization procedure comprising repeating the steps of selecting a current record block for scanning and generating a current set of the data characteristic statistics, selecting a new record block, different from the current block, for scanning and generating a new set of the data characteristic statistics, and comparing the current set of statistics to the new set of statistics, until the entropy value of the new set is below a predetermined entropy threshold and the number of scanned record blocks equals a predetermined scanning limit value, and thereupon storing the new block in an interrogation buffer and storing the set of new data characteristic statistics.
47. A combination as defined in claim 46, wherein the data characteristic statistics generated by the interrogation processor include a frequency distribution of characters found in the scanned record, a rate of occurrence for each character in the frequency distribution, and an entropy value; and the interrogation processor further comprises: means for completing a stabilization procedure comprising repeating the steps of selecting a current record block for scanning and generating a current set of the data characteristic statistics, selecting a new record block, different from the current block, for scanning and generating a new set of the data characteristic statistics, and comparing the current set of statistics to the new set of statistics, until the entropy value of the new set is below a predetermined entropy threshold and the number of scanned record blocks equals a predetermined scanning limit value, and thereupon storing the new block in an interrogation buffer and storing the set of new data characteristic statistics. 50. A combination as defined in claim 47, wherein the interrogation processor selects dictionary segments according to a character frequency distribution from the new set of data characteristic statistics for the scanned record block.