Methods and systems for data management and analysis

1. A method for analyzing information within a database that comprises one or more database structures which collectively contain a plurality of data records, with each record having at least two data element types, and with at least one of the data element types having a different data element value from the data element value for the corresponding data element type in at least one other record in the database; the method characterized by the steps of:

reading the plurality of records;

instantiating an initial data structure for each unique data element type within the plurality of records;

creating an entry in the initial data structure for each data element type for each unique data element value within that data element type;

selecting one or more database structures within the database;

instantiating a final data structure for the selected database structures in which the data element value for each data element type reflects the entry made in the initial data structures for that data element value;

receiving a query for information from the database, wherein the query comprises a first search term and a second search term;

determining particular data element types and data element values that are the subject of the query, wherein the first search term is one of a first plurality of unique data element values of a first data element type of the particular data element types and the second search term is one of a second plurality of unique data element values of a second data element type of the particular data element types;

instantiating a query data structure indicating the data element types and the data element values that are the subject of the query, wherein the query data structure comprises a first digit representing the one of the first plurality of unique data element values of the first data type and a second digit representing the one of the second plurality of unique data element values of the second data type;

identifying records within the database that contain one or more data element types and/or data element values that are included in the query data structure; and

instantiating a results data structure comprising information relating to the identified records.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising assigning a unique code, to each unique data element value within each data element type, wherein the unique code is of a type that can be used to facilitate computer processing, and wherein entries in the initial data structures and the query data structure for the data element values are the corresponding assigned unique code instead of the actual data element values.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying one or more of the data element values in a manner that indicates whether or not the data element values were included in the query data structure.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising associating a unique identifier to each of the initial data structures, final data structures, query data structures and results data structures, and storing in memory the initial data structures, final data structures, query data structures and results data structures along with their respective unique identifier.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising sorting the displayed data element values included in the results data structure by the order of their frequency of occurrence.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising utilizing the number of occurrences to provide suggestions for alternative queries of the database.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising counting a frequency of occurrence of each of the data element values included in the results data structure, and using results of the counting to prioritize the data element values.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising counting a number of unique data element values in the results data structure and utilizing the results of the counting to further analyze information contained the database.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising counting a number of records containing one or more of the data element values included in the results data structure and utilizing the results of the counting to further analyze information contained the database.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising counting the number of records that do not contain one or more of the data element values included in the results data structure and utilizing the results of the counting to further analyze information contained the database.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using values in the initial database structures to suggest values as query criteria during the entry of values for queries of the database, thereby enabling a user to accept the suggested values.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using values in the initial database structures to determine whether values entered for the query are data element types or data element values, thereby allowing searches of the database without specification of whether the entered values are data element types or data element values.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using values in the initial database structures to determine whether there are associations between the values of the query data structure, and thereby affording the ability to prioritize the values of the results data structure based upon the associations of the query data structure.