TECHNIQUE FOR ENFORCING TEMPORAL UNIQUENESS IN AN OBJECT/RELATIONAL DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT

A system, method and program extender for enforcing the uniqueness of temporal data in an object/relational database management system is provided. There is a combination of user-defined functions, triggers and specified conditions to determine if attempts to insert new data or update existing data in a data object in which temporal integrity is a consideration are valid. Barriers exist to protect against inserts or updates that would violate the temporal integrity of the existing data. Also included are ways for a user to modify the behavior of the system or method to override triggers for cases in which temporal integrity is not desired.