DATABASE ROW VERSION DIFFERENTIATION PROCESS

A method for row version differentiation in a database management system employs steps of identifying a versioned table to said database; creating a logical primary key, comprising a prescribed number of columns in the versioned table, the logical primary key being created in a physical primary key of the versioned table; defining at least one column of the physical primary key as a version effective reference value; deriving version differentiation criteria information from a version differentiation predicate included in a request submitted by a database user, the version differentiation predicate including a name of the versioned table defined to a database, a target effective status, and a target value for version differentiation processing; retrieving rows of the versioned table that satisfy the version differentiation criteria derived from the version differentiation predicate by comparing the effective reference values of the versioned table with the version differentiation criteria.