Patent ID: 8650169

Claim:
A method for identifying a transaction that accessed a data item of interest in a database system, comprising: identifying the data item from a database table in the database system; identifying a primary key of the database table which uniquely identifies a row containing the data item, in which a committed transaction previously performed a data access on the data item, and the committed transaction constitutes the transaction to be identified; using the primary key to identify the committed transaction from a log record comprising information relating to one or more committed transactions, each of which previously performed at least one data access on the database system containing the data item, wherein the committed transaction is identified by: using the primary key to determine a storage unit corresponding to the data item; accessing the log record associated with the storage unit; and identifying one of the one or more committed transactions based upon a result from the act of determining the storage unit and the act of accessing the log record; and displaying a result of the act of using the primary key to identify the committed transaction from a log record or storing the result in a tangible computer usable medium.