Generic Audit

Looking at the column comments on this table, I can sympathise with the poor soul who after painstakingly describing 100 columns just decided that it just wasn’t worth it…

table audit_history (column comments in quotes):

id number(18) “Unique identifier”
aud_table_name varchar2(30) “audit record table”
audit_action varchar2(50) “audit action e.g. update”
aud_timestamp date “timestamp of the audit”
aud_user_id varchar2(100) “user performing the action”
aud_col_1 varchar2(4000) “audit column 1”
aud_col_2 varchar2(4000) “audit column 2”
aud_col_3 varchar2(4000) “audit column 3”
… (etc.) …
aud_col_99 varchar2(4000) “audit column 99”
aud_col_100 varchar2(4000) “audit column 100”
aud_col_101 varchar2(4000)
aud_col_102 varchar2(4000)
… (etc.) …
aud_col_139 varchar2(4000)
aud_col_140 varchar2(4000)

Tip: Don’t let anyone even think about using this kind of design for their change history auditing requirements. It might look elegant to them, but it is not good. Just, don’t.

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