Versioning in SQL Tables - how to handle it?

Question

Here\'s a fictional scenario with some populated data. For tax purposes, my fictional company must retain records of historical data. For this reason, I\'ve included a version c

Answer 1

Here is my suggested approach, which has worked very well for me in the past:

• Forget the version number. Instead, use StartDate and EndDate columns
• Write a trigger to ensure that there are no overlapping date ranges for the same ID, and that there is only ever one record with a NULL EndDate for the same ID (this is your currently effective record)
• Put indexes on StartDate and EndDate; this should give you reasonable performance

This will easily let you report by date:

select *
from MyTable 
where MyReportDate between StartDate and EndDate

or get the current info:

select *
from MyTable 
where EndDate is null