Find current data set using two SQL tables storing separately historical insertions and deletions - sql

Question

Problem
I need to do daily syncs of our latest internal data to an external audit database that does not offer an update interface. In order to update some records, I need to first generate and send in a deletion file to remove those records, and then follow by an insertion file with the same but updated records in it.
An important detail is that all of the records in deletion files must match the external records verbatim, in order to be deleted.
Proposed approach
Currently I use two separate SQL tables to version control what I have inserted/deleted.
Let's say that right now the inserted_records table looks like this:
id | file_version | contract_id | customer_name | start_year
9 | 6 | 1 | Alice | 2015
10 | 6 | 2 | Bob | 2015
11 | 6 | 3 | Charlie | 2015
Accompanied by a separate and empty deleted_records table with identical columns.
Now, if I want to
change the customer_name from Alice to Dave on line id 9
change the start_year for Bob from 2015 to 2020 on line id 10
Two new lines in inserted_records would be generated, line 12 and 13, in turn creating a new insertion file 7.
id | file_version | contract_id | customer_name | start_year
9 | 6 | 1 | Alice | 2015
10 | 6 | 2 | Bob | 2015
11 | 6 | 3 | Charlie | 2015
12 | 7 | 1 | Dave | 2015
13 | 7 | 2 | Bob | 2020
Then their original column values in line 9 and 10 are then copied onto the previously empty deleted_records, in turn creating a new deletion file 1.
id | file_version | contract_id | customer_name | start_year
1 | 1 | 1 | Alice | 2015
2 | 1 | 2 | Bob | 2015
Now, if I were to send in the deletion file 1 first followed by the insertion file 7, I would get the result that I wanted.
Question
How can I query the current set of records, considering all insertions and deletions that have occurred? Assuming all records in deleted_records always have matches in inserted_records and if multiple, we always delete records with smaller file version numbers first.
I have tried by first writing one to query the inserted_records for the latest records grouped by contract_id.
select top 1 with ties *
from insertion_record
order by row_number() over (partition by contract_id order by file_version desc)
This would give me line 11, 12 and 13, which is what I wanted in this particular example. But if we also wanted to delete the record line 11 with Charlie, then my query wouldn't work anymore as it doesn't take deleted_records into account, and I have no idea how to do it in SQL.
Furthermore, my nut tells me that this approach isn't solid as there are two separate and moving parts, perhaps there is a better approach to solve this?

Answer 1

How can I query the current set of records
I don't understand your question. Every SQL query is against the current set of records, if by that you mean the data currently in the database.
I do see a couple of problems.
Unless the table you're deleting from has a key defined, even an exact match on every column risks deleting more than one row.
You're performing an ad hoc update with UPDATE's transaction guarantee. I suppose the table you're updating is otherwise idle, and as a practical matter you don't have to worry about someone else (or you) re-inserting the deleted rows before your inserts arrive. But it's problem waiting to happen.
If what you're trying to do is produce the set of rows that will be the result of a series of inserts and deletions, you haven't provided enough information to say how that could be done, or even if it's possible. There would have to be some way to uniquely identify rows, so that deletions and insertions can be associated. (They don't match on all columns, after all.) And you'd need some indication of order of operation, because it matters whether INSERT follows or precedes DELETE.