A syntax methodology provides a descriptive mechanism to enable machine readable storage and retrieval of numeric data contained in bibliographic documents. The body of this paper treats the nature of "the syntax,""the data element," and the language by which this syntax is expressed. A discussion of the methodology illustrates a possible data browsing technique in an heuristic online environment. Appendices provide (1) examples of the original numeric data and the transcriptions of those data into the syntax notation; (2) representation in the relational calculus of the technical formulation for the essence of the syntax; and (3) 13 rules of order that must be followed when attempting to transcribe the numeric data into the syntax. (Author/RAA)