A method of analyzing data link messages is disclosed. These messages include a message type field and at least one message content field whose meaning is determined by the message type. The method includes storing the plurality of data link messages in a database. The method also includes assigning each data link message to one or more message groups according to the message type field so that each group contains data link messages of a specific message type. In addition, the method includes tabulating the messages so as to align corresponding message content fields, displaying the tabulated messages so that the corresponding message content fields are aligned; and displaying a list of the field contents for each message content field. The displayed list is filtered to remove repeated incidence of the same content, within each of the message groups.