A current database stores only current data without timestamps, while a temporal database includes timestamps indicating the validity of data. Current databases reduce system overhead, but businesses often use both types of databases for current and past records.
A current database is a database that stores only currently accurate data. A database is a collection of facts usually arranged in tables. The purpose of a database is to speed up the retrieval and analysis of data, by making it easy to access information using the SQL programming language (Structured Query Language). Current databases are one of two main types of databases; the other is known as a temporal database. A current database states, by its definition, that all information currently held in the database is current at the specific time of access.
To understand current databases, it helps to think about them in comparison to temporal databases. In a temporal database, each piece of information contains a timestamp, time interval, or some other reference data that indicates the period during which the data is valid. For example, an employee’s record in any database might include the employee’s name along with personal information such as date of birth, position, salary, and so on. In a time database, all of that data would also include a date listing the time period for which the information is accurate. This could mean including the hire date or a time period during which the employee contract is active.
While the temporal database provides an instant reference so that users can understand whether the data is currently applicable, conversely, a current database eliminates this concept. No timestamp or time stamp information is stored with individual records. Individuals using the database must then infer the relevance of the record’s information to the current time period, simply from the fact that it still remains in the system. Outdated or irrelevant expired data is purged from a current database. This deletion of stale data is critical to the functioning of current databases.
The benefit of a current database is that it reduces excess overhead on the system. Without a timestamp clogging up storage space for every entry in the system, a current database is elegant and tidy compared to most of its temporal counterparts. However, most of today’s databases are not used in isolation. Businesses will often have a current database of employee records, along with financial information and so on, along with time databases for previous records or archives of past data. This way, they have current files always at hand in a fast and elegant database, but can still venture into past records in their temporal databases as well.
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