Abstract: A high level transformation method and apparatus for converting data formats in the context of network applications, among other places. A flexible transformation mechanism is provided that facilitates generation of translation machine code on the fly. A translator is dynamically generated by a translator compiler engine. The translator compiler engine implemented according to the present invention uses a pair of formal machine-readable format descriptions (FMRFDs) and a corresponding data map (DMAP) to generate executable machine code native to the translator platform CPU. When fed an input stream, the translator generates an output stream by executing the native object code generated on the fly by the translator compiler engine. In addition, the translator may be configured to perform a bi-directional translation between the two streams as well as translation between two distinct protocol sequences.