Patent ID: 8767724

Claim:
A system for non-destructive data storage including: a storage device; a processor configured to: store, on the storage device, a chain of effective change objects associated with an instance of a business object comprising a plurality of effective change objects, wherein each effective change object in the chain includes: (1) a field list of changes that comprises a list of one or more changes specified by a corresponding transaction with respect to the instance of the business object, (2) a next pointer, (3) a prior pointer, and (4) an instance pointer, wherein each effective change object in the chain is associated with a corresponding effective time which comprises a time when the one or more changes specified by the transaction associated with the effective change object are indicated to be effective, and wherein each effective change object in the chain is associated with a corresponding transaction time which comprises a time when the transaction associated with the effective change object is requested or executed; and determine a state of the instance of the business object effective at an inquiry time including by scanning through at least a portion of the chain of effective change objects based at least in part on a corresponding next pointer and prior pointer associated with each of at least some of the plurality of effective change objects in the chain; and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory is configured to provide the processor with instructions.