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

Idea 3 will work:

SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE AS e1
WHERE Position = 'Coder'
AND Version = (
    SELECT MAX(Version) FROM Employee AS e2
    WHERE e1.ID=e2.ID)

You really want to use something like a date though, which is much easier to program and track, and will use the same logic (something like an EffectiveDate column)

EDIT:

Chris is totally correct about moving this info out of your production table for performance, especially if you expect frequent updates. Another option would be to make a VIEW that only shows you the most recent version of each person's info, that you build off of this table.