Database structure for storing historical data

Question

Preface: I was thinking the other day about a new database structure for a new application and realized that we needed a way to store historical data in an efficient way. I

Answer 1

If you are genuinely interested in such problems, I can only suggest you take a serious look at "Temporal Data and the Relational Model".

Warning1 : there is no SQL in there and almost anything you think you know about the relational model will be claimed a falsehood. With good reason.

Warning2 : you are expected to think, and think hard.

Warning3 : the book is about what the solution for this particular family of problems ought to look like, but as the introduction says, it is not about any technology available today.

That said, the book is genuine enlightenment. At the very least, it helps to make it clear that the solution for such problems will not be found in SQl as it stands today, or in ORMs as those stand today, for that matter.