`active' flag or not?

Question

OK, so practically every database based application has to deal with \"non-active\" records. Either, soft-deletions or marking something as \"to be ignored\". I\'m curious a

Answer 1

The situation really dictates the solution, methinks:

If the table contains users, then several "flag" fields could be used. One for Deleted, Disabled etc. Or if space is an issue, then a flag for disabled would suffice, and then actually deleting the row if they have been deleted.

It also depends on policies for storing data. If there are policies for keeping data archived, then a separate table would most likely be necessary after any great length of time.