I was asked to look into the concept of oracle's support of logical
deletes for rows.

The background is that the current set of tables are small, but
requests to have them restored can take a while to complete, and also
one would lose any modifications that occurred since the last backup.

In a discussion about the situation, the topic of Oracle support for
logical deletes, where the row "remains" in the table, but not seen,
came up.

When I google for oracle logical deletes, I see some information about
logically deleting columns, but the rest of the top 30-40 hits seemed
to be irrelevant to the topic about which I am seeking.

Is anyone aware of some capability in Oracle like this? If so, perhaps
I didn't get the name correct, or complete, regarding the
functionality.

Any tips would be appreciated.

On 16 Mar, 15:25, "Larry W. Virden" <lvir... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
What version of Oracle? Have you considered Oracle's Flashback
technology?

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B..._av.htm#i36677

HTH

-g

Larry W. Virden schreef:
Changes since last backup will not be lost if your database runs in
archive log mode.

Shakespeare

On Mar 16, 11:25*am, "Larry W. Virden" <lvir... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
There are ways to version table data that are basically database
independent. One method would be to create a history table and using
table triggers record all changes of interest into the history table.
You could query the data from there.

Another method involves placing a version indicatior on the row and
placing views on top of the table (that is, query views instead of the
real table) that present either the current row or a prior set of rows
based on common criteria.

Oracle has a feature called workspace manager, or something close to
this, that will keep multiple versions of the data. This might be an
option.

HTH -- Mark D Powell --