A current database is a conventional database that stores data that is valid now. For example, if a user inserts "John Smith" into the Staff table of a current database, this asserts that the fact is valid now and until it is subsequently deleted.
By contrast, a temporal database qualifies each row with a valid time stamp, valid time period or valid time interval. For example, we can assert the fact that "John Smith" was a member of staff during the period 1 June 2001 and now.
Current databases are the most common type of database in use today. The concept of now is discussed in Clifford et alia (1997).
Famous quotes containing the word current:
“Gradually the village murmur subsided, and we seemed to be embarked on the placid current of our dreams, floating from past to future as silently as one awakes to fresh morning or evening thoughts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)