Patent ID: 6988095

Claim:
A method for performing parametric searches on an electronic database without converting the database to a standard format, comprising: receiving at a parametric search engine a first data definition file that describes the structure of records in an electronic database, wherein the first data definition file is stored separately from the parametric search engine; receiving a user selection to perform a parametric search on a subcategory of records in the electronic database; displaying a first set of search parameters selectable by an end-user for a first iteration of the parametric search on the selected subcategory of records; parametrically searching the electronic database with the parametric search engine without initially converting the database to a standard format using the first data definition file to generate database queries based on parameters selected by the end-user from the first set of parameters; displaying results of the first iteration of the parametric search simultaneously with a second set of parameters selectable by the end-user for a second iteration of the parametric search on the selected subcategory of records, the displayed results including the display of the number of database entries that match the parameters selected by the end-user from the first set of parameters, wherein the second set of parameters includes parameters in the first set of parameters and parameters not included in the first set of parameters; parametrically searching the electronic database with the parametric search engine without initially converting the database to a standard format using the first data definition file to generate database queries based on parameters selected by the end-user from the second set of parameters; displaying results of the second iteration of the parametric search; receiving at the parametric search engine a second data definition file that describes a new structure for the records in the electronic database file, wherein the second data definition file is stored separately from the parametric search engine; parametrically searching the electronic database with the parametric search engine without converting the database to a standard format using the second data definition file to generate database queries; electronically downloading the electronic database; and parametrically searching the electronic database using the second data definition file to generate database queries comprises parametrically searching the electronic database without re-downloading the electronic database.