A pathology accessioning and retrieval system with encoding by computer (PARSEC) has been developed, employing a relatively inexpensive microcomputer. PARSEC performs a variety of administrative functions for anatomic pathology, including accessioning of surgical specimens, storage of patient demographic information, editing, retrieval, and archiving of patient data, as well as CAP (college of American Pathologists) workload units, billing, and inventory functions for histopathology. In addition, appropriate gross and microscopic descriptions and pathologic diagnoses can be entered into the system by a text editor. Automatic assignment of SNOP (Systematized Nomenclature of Pathology) codes, is accomplished via an online SNOP lexicon, allowing the ultimate generation of completed surgical pathology reports. The data base management system employed makes optimum use of disk storage space, while permitting rapid data retrieval. Data file maintenance is automatically accomplished by the system, requiring no user intervention.