SQLBits 2018

Temporal Data in SQL Server

Use temporal support in SQL Server and add what is missing out of the box.
Databases that serve business applications should often support temporal data. For example, suppose
a contract with a supplier is valid for a limited time only. It can be valid from a specific point in time onward, or it can be valid for a specific time interval—from a starting time point to an ending time point. In addition, many times you need to audit all changes in one or more tables. You might also need to be able to show the state in a specific point in time, or all changes made to a table in a specific period of time. From the data integrity perspective, you might need to implement many additional temporal specific constraints.
This session introduces the temporal problems, deals with solutions that go beyond SQL Server support, and shows out-of-the-box solution in SQL Server, including defining temporal data, application versioned tables, system versioned tables, and what kind of temporal support is still missing in SQL Server.